Winter's Blight
by McSquidster
Summary: Natsu had trusted Gray with Lucy's life, and the raven haired boy would be damned if he let their captors do anything to her. Nuclear Winter AU. Warnings: Mentions of rape and cannibalism.
1. Chapter 1

Gray let out a heavy sigh as he rested his forehead against the massive log he was kneeling behind, his ski goggles pressing painfully into the area between his eyebrows. He had been scanning the forest for hours, and his eyes were met with just what he expected to see when he had left base to come out here.

Nothing.

Nothing other than dead or dying trees and layers of snow. Though he supposed that it may not all be snow. There was so much ash in the atmosphere that it often fell from the sky along with the snow, the white flakes blending together as they blanketed the ground.

There was no sign of any animal life, and there hadn't been for months. They had hunted the forest dry, but he still got sent out here at least once a week, forced to scrounge up whatever remained of his vestige of hope that maybe, _just maybe_ , there would be a miracle and he would find some game.

He lifted his head only to slam it down onto the log again, letting his bow slip from his grasp to sink into the snow. He was sick of spending his days like this. There was just no point.

As a child, his parents had told him stories of how the world was before everything went to hell. He didn't see the point in that either. Hearing about how warm and bright and vivid the world used to be only strengthened his sense of inevitable doom. He supposed that maybe they were trying to spark his imagination or give him hope that he would live long enough for things to return to the way they once were.

But he knew better than to believe in that bullshit. Humanity had screwed themselves a thousand times over. The damage they had done was irreversible by anything humankind was capable of attempting at the moment.

Nuclear war. That had been the cause. Humanity had been so caught up in their hatred and mindless conflicts with one another that they didn't realize they were bringing about their own doom. The atmosphere had been completely decimated by the weapons of mass destruction. The ash from the widespread firestorms that followed the war shot soot into the stratosphere, where it blocked sunlight from reaching the surface of the Earth. With its primary source of light and heat obstructed, the planet was thrown into a nuclear winter.

Humanity itself had also been decimated. Those that weren't killed by the nuclear blasts or the radiation that they left behind had to fend for themselves in a world that was suddenly launched into a seemingly never-ending winter. Growing food was almost impossible in the new climate, and areas that depended wholly on agriculture quickly died off. And as if there hadn't been enough bloodshed already, in places where food was commonly processed, canned, and made storable for an extended periods of time, people killed one another for their sustenance.

Gray guessed he was lucky for being born into the group that he was instead of into a group of people that killed others to survive. But he supposed there weren't many people left to kill anymore anyways. No one from their base had seen another group of survivors since this entire ordeal had started. They used to find a few lone survivors every now and then, but they hadn't encountered anyone since they found Juvia eight years ago, and she was almost twenty-one now.

Gray himself had only ever seen the faces of forty-five people. Some of their faces he would never see again. They were buried under layers and layers of dirt. And others had been introduced into his life sporadically as more survivors were found and people had children.

He was drawn out of his thoughts as something wet and cold hit the side of his head, the ball of snow breaking apart as soon as it smashed against his temple. Following the impact, boisterous laughter rung through the air.

His head whipped to the side, his gaze zeroing in on the culprit.

His hunting partner was leaning back against the thick trunk of a tree a few feet away from him, her knees pulled into her chest and arms wrapped over her swollen stomach, clutching at her sides while she laughed. The bump was barely distinguishable from the rest of her torso beneath the many layers that she had bundled herself in.

Ever since she had begun to show a little over a month ago, Gray couldn't help the rush of excitement that poured over him every time he caught sight of her. The number of faces that he had seen would soon go up to forty-six.

He was lucky that his scarf hid the bottom half of his face, concealing his smile from her view. He forced his voice to sound cold like it normally did, "What the hell, Lucy?"

"I saw how determined you were to bash your own brains in against that log. I was just trying to lighten the mood," the blonde managed to get out between laughs. Her boisterous chuckling sounded too similar to Natsu's for Gray's liking. Maybe her husband had finally started wearing off on her. That, or the human growing inside of her was making her go insane.

So she wanted to lighten the mood? Gray decided that he could use a bit of fun himself, so he would play into the game she had just started.

But he needed to get revenge first.

"You know that we're supposed to be hunting. Maybe pay attention to the forest like you're supposed to instead of focusing on me."

Her laughter quickly died out as she heard the anger in his voice and she scoffed, "Bullshit, Gray. We both know that there hasn't been any game in this forest for months. Makarov's just too optimistic to give it up and accept the fact that there's nothing left to be gained from this hunting ground."

"Yeah, well there's definitely nothing to be gained from it when you're out here acting like a child."

She let out a short, incredulous laugh, "God, did someone shove a stick up your ass? I was just trying to have some fun." She turned her focus back to the side of the forest that she was supposed to be watching, her lips set in a sour pout.

Gray smirked beneath his scarf. Her attention was off of him, just like he had wanted.

The blonde was like his little sister, and he couldn't help but mess with her sometimes. And just like he knew how to tick her off, he knew exactly what to do to cheer her up.

He slowly reached down to cup some snow in his hands, carefully compressing it into a decent sized ball. He tried to be quiet, though his puffy coat was making that quite difficult.

It appeared that he had genuinely ticked Lucy off though. She didn't even glance his way as he moved about.

He aimed his arm to throw the snowball, calling out, "Hey, Lucy!"

His timing was perfect.

Just as she turned her head, the snowball hit her square in the face. She sat in shocked silence for a moment before bursting out in laughter.

Gray chuckled too, though his laughter quickly turned into wordless, panicked shouting as he scrambled to his feet when he caught sight of the mischievous smirk on Lucy's face, her hands quickly moving to form another snowball.

"Oh, you're in for it now, you jerk!"

The blonde was soon on her feet as well, though the process was a bit awkward given her swollen stomach.

Gray started to run through the forest, a bright smile on his face despite the slight terror that he felt as he glanced over to see her begin chasing him.

Lucy could be scarier than Erza when she truly committed herself to something. Despite her small stature, the blonde had never been one to go down without a fight, and being pregnant had only intensified her will to claim victory by tenfold.

He slid to a stop, bending down to scoop up a handful of snow as he did.

They launched their snowballs at the same time, the projectiles flying true and hitting their intended targets.

The forest was filled with laughter as the two continued to bombard one another with snowballs, neither caring about the fact that they were supposed to be hunting.

After a few minutes of their play, Lucy's laughter suddenly cut off, the snow in her hands slipping from her now limp grasp.

Gray went silent too when he caught sight of the blonde's expression as he straightened himself out after bending down to replenish his ammunition. Her eyes were wide and focused on something behind him, her entire frame tense.

There was suddenly a blinding pain in his calf, right above where his boot ended. As his vision momentarily went white, he fell to the ground with a pained cry, his hand instinctively moving to clutch at the area.

The raven haired boy heard Lucy shout his name, but his focus was on whatever the hell had just embedded itself in his leg.

He screamed through clenched teeth as his hand pressed against his calf, his stomach starting to whirl at the thick wetness that coated his fingers, far too warm to be snow. He tightened his fingers around the object that protruded from his flesh, quickly identifying it as the shaft of an arrow.

Lucy cried his name again, and his head numbly shifted in the snow as he looked in her direction. He did his best to focus on her through his fuzzy vision, and he saw her blurry figure running towards him in a panic.

Another figure was suddenly flying into his line of sight, lunging to tackle the blonde to the ground.

Gray's angered shout chorused with Lucy's shriek as the figure pinned her in the snow.

He desperately struggled to push himself up as the blonde's screams continued to echo through the forest, his jaw clenched as his calf sent jolts of pain up his body. His foot slid out from under him as his leg refused to support his weight, and he collapsed to the ground again and again. But he wouldn't give up.

He couldn't see Lucy's face from his perspective, but he could hear her desperate screams and he could see her legs desperately kicking through the air and snow as she struggled against the figure that straddled her.

If Lucy was going to keep fighting, then he wouldn't give up.

Natsu had trusted him to take care of her when they got sent out here. He wouldn't let his best friend down, no matter what.

And he wouldn't let Lucy down either. She was like his little sister, and there was no way that he was letting anything happen to her.

So he brought his hands underneath himself once again, clenching his jaw to restrain a pained shout as tried to push himself up.

"You bastard! Let her g-"

A boot was suddenly pressing against his back, his hands sliding out from under him as he was shoved back down into the snow face first.

Lucy's screams suddenly stopped, and Gray let out an angry shout as he watched her legs fall limp in the snow.

A boot landed right in front of his face, blocking the blonde from his line of sight.

The stock of a rifle suddenly slammed against his temple, and his consciousness faded into black.

* * *

 **AN**

 **Yay! A new story! This story will only be a few chapters, I'm not sure exactly how many at this point. I also don't know when I'll update this next, but I just wanted to get this first chapter out here to see if people are actually interested!**

 **I've been wanting to write an apocalypse-driven story for a while now, but I felt like making this story take place during the Zombie apocalypse without actually having any zombies in it would be pretty unfair to you guys. Plus I may or may not have plans for another zombie apocalypse fic ;) Nuclear winter is just a theory (obviously, since it hasn't happened yet) but I found the idea pretty intriguing and decided that it would be the drive for the post-apocalyptic world in this story :)**

 **Also, just a few clarifications:**

 **-This story is NOT a Graylu. I love the sibling-like relationship between those two, so that will be the focus of the story, but I absolutely do not ship them together. They'll never be in a romantic relationship in one of my stories. I love Nalu and Gruvia wwaaaayyy too much for that to happen. Both of those ships will be a part of this story :)**

 **-Lucy is married to Natsu in this fic, and she's about four months pregnant in this chapter.**

 **-All of the characters will be a bit older in this story than they are in Fairy Tail. Gray is 21 and Lucy is 20. I'll tell you the ages of the other characters as they are introduced.**


	2. Chapter 2

**WARNING: There is some pretty strong language in this chapter, and there are mentions of a few different sensitive topics. It is the end of the world, and people can be pretty messed up, so be warned!**

* * *

It had been just before noon when Gray and Lucy left base to hunt, and Natsu had started to grow anxious when dinnertime rolled around and the duo hadn't returned yet. Makarov had shown his concern, too. Nothing like this had ever happened before. They had a system and everything always worked according to that system. People weren't sure of what to do when something suddenly went wrong.

The old man had eagerly agreed when Natsu insisted that someone be sent out to look for them. The salmon haired boy was of course the first to volunteer, and Makarov had called on a few others to aid him in his search.

Erza and Gajeel had been the ones to accompany him, and so far their search had yielded nothing.

Natsu cursed to himself for the thousandth time, resisting the urge to slam his head against one of the nearby trees. His worry was making him go insane.

They'd been searching the forest for hours, and it was starting to grow dark. They hadn't found anything. The forest floor was already uneven, so it was hard to tell what was a foot print and what was only a hole in the ground that snow had piled into. There was no trace any life, and there was no indication as to where Gray and Lucy were.

Natsu was always wary of sending his wife off with other people. Even if they had never had an incident, he wanted to be around to make sure that she was always okay. And the fact that she was pregnant with his child only intensified his desire to be with her twenty-four-seven. Their base had a bad history of stillborn babies and mothers dying during childbirth. Gray's mother had unfortunately fallen under both of those circumstances when giving birth to her second child, and she wasn't the only one to face such a fate.

He supposed Gray was the person he trusted most when it came to watching out for Lucy, though he would rather die before admitting that to anyone else. According to the older people on base, the two boys had been nearly inseparable from the blonde after she'd been born. Some of them had stated that they'd even hoped some sort of love triangle would develop to spice up life on base. But it didn't take long for it to become very clear that Natsu and Gray held very different types of love for the girl. They had known from the time they were very young that Natsu and Lucy would end up together, and Gray would always be there to beat some sense into Natsu if the salmon haired boy ever did her wrong. But Gray was also the best wingman that Natsu could have asked for, also something that he would never admit to anyone else.

Natsu plopped himself on a log, burying his face in his hands and taking a moment to calm himself. He felt Erza's and Gajeel's pitiful stares on him, but he ignored it. He knew that both of them were worried too, even if Gajeel didn't show it. Everyone on base treated each other like family. They gave each other hope and looked out for one another. Losing somebody was everybody's greatest fear, and now two of their own were nowhere to be found.

But Natsu wouldn't rest until they were found. He wasn't going to lose his wife and best friend that easily. He'd make sure to drag them both back with him safe and sound.

With renewed determination, he shot back onto his feet. He took a single step, pausing when something snapped beneath his foot. Upon looking down, he realized that it was one of their base's crudely made wooden bows. Over seven years ago, Makarov had urged them to find alternatives to guns so that they could conserve their more lethal weapons in case a dire situation arose. Bows seemed like the next best option to everyone. They were silent, simple to wield, and the arrows were easy to make and could often times be reused.

Natsu felt his heart drop as he took the broken bow in his hand, easily recognizing it as the one that Gray had carved when he was only fourteen. The boy had insisted on using it ever since then, something that people at base teased him for relentlessly. But Gray was one of their best hunters, and he had earned every kill using this bow, so they all supposed it worked well enough.

And Natsu had just snapped the old wood beneath his foot.

He didn't have long to feel guilty about it though, his focus shifting elsewhere as Gajeel's voice suddenly rang through the forest.

"Salamander! Titania! Get the fuck over here! Now!"

Natsu ran towards his voice without a second of hesitation, but he was soon sliding to a halt next to Gajeel, his entire form filling with rage as his eyes fell upon the sight that was waiting for him.

Lucy's coat and gloves rested atop the snow, looking as if they had been vicariously thrown aside in a hurried scramble. Gray's ski goggles were partially buried a few feet away, the glass cracked and the strap broken.

And in the middle of it all, the snow was stained scarlet with blood.

* * *

Gray had just regained consciousness, but he already felt like he was going to pass out at any second. His head was pounding and his calf was throbbing, sending jolts of pain up his entire leg. He hadn't even opened his eyes, but there was already an overwhelming feeling of _wrong_ weighing down on him. He couldn't remember anything about the moments that lead up to his current situation. All he knew was that he had somehow ended up face down on a cold surface, concrete if he had to guess by the hard roughness that was pressing into his cheek.

He slowly opened his eyes, the action taking much more effort and force than it normally did. His vision was fuzzy, and his mind was slow to process his surroundings. Just like he had guessed, he was laying on concrete, though the gray surface was splashed with a violent red directly in front of his face. It took him more than a moment to realize it was blood, and that it was puddling out from beneath where his head met the ground.

He clenched his jaw as he rolled onto his back, his tired muscles straining as they fought to complete the action. He used his arms to slowly push himself up with a low groan, the limbs shaking warily beneath the weight of his upper body. Once his torso was upright, his left hand came to press against his temple. He immediately pulled his hand back with a small hiss, his fingers coated with his own blood. He could feel that the entire left side of his face was coated in the substance as well, and his hair on that side was matted against his forehead with the stickiness. He noticed his right hand was covered in blood too, though it had dried and was cracked in several places.

He turned his focus to his calf next, leaning forward to inspect the wound through the tear in his snow pants. He couldn't remember how the hell he had gotten it, but it hurt like hell and it was still bleeding quite a bit, smearing even more blood across the concrete as he moved his leg about. He decided that treating it was priority over letting it continue to bleed whilst he contemplated its cause. So he yanked his scarf from around his neck, wrapping the material around his calf several times before pulling on both ends to tighten it so it would put some pressure over his wound. He groaned through clenched teeth at the pain that the action brought on, his mind finally pulling out of its fog and being spurred into full awareness by the agonizing sensation. He started to breath heavily as memories of what had happened began to assault his consciousness.

 _He remembered letting his bow sink into the snow, completely abandoning his task of hunting to start a snowball fight with Lucy. Her laughter suddenly cutting out and her body tensing as she focused on something behind him. A blinding pain as an arrow was suddenly embedded into his calf. Lucy's screaming as she was tackled to the ground and straddled by a figure that had come out of nowhere. Something slamming into his temple and his consciousness fading into blackness._

Those thoughts had his head franticly whipping around, and he let out a relieved breath when he found what he was looking for.

Lucy was laying on her side a few feet away, her back facing him. He hurriedly crawled over to her, his own pain becoming secondary as his worry for the blonde took over. He gently took a hold of her shoulder, using it to roll her upper half back onto his lap, cradling her head in the crook of his arm.

"Lucy," Gray coaxed, gently shaking her form. "Hey…Lucy, wake up."

She was breathing at least, and that was enough to calm his nerves a small fraction.

His jaw clenched as he saw the nasty cut that rested above her right eyebrow, dripping blood into her golden hair. A blue and yellow bruise spanned over the area too, and he guessed that she had been knocked unconscious in the same manner he had.

His eyes scanned over the rest of her form as well, his brows furrowing when noticed that her snow pants and boots were gone, though her socks and thick sweat pants still remained. Her heavy coat, sweater, scarf, and gloves were missing too, leaving her upper half covered only by a black undershirt and a red flannel that he was sure belonged to Natsu. The buttons of the flannel were left undone to accommodate her swollen stomach, and the black material of her undershirt was stretched thin over the bump. Life during the end of the world hadn't given her many options when it came to pregnancy clothes, but the blonde made due with what she had nonetheless.

It was then that Gray noticed a few items of his own apparel were missing, like his ski goggles and gloves. He remembered leaving his gloves back by the log that he had been kneeling behind whilst hunting, throwing them aside because they got in the way and he preferred to use his bow without them. Warmth didn't matter much to him anyways. He had a higher tolerance towards the cold than most people from his base did, and he would go as far to say that he even had an affinity for it.

The cold was getting to him at the moment though, amplified by the concrete walls and floor of the room. If _he_ was cold, he couldn't imagine what Lucy felt like. She had only the thin flannel and undershirt to contain heat while he had a thick and puffy coat and snow pants on top of all of his other clothes.

He couldn't get her to wake up, which filled with his heart with worry, but he decided to somewhat take advantage of the situation and care for her while she was unconscious. Lucy was sometimes too kindhearted for her own good, and he was sure that if she was conscious, she would refuse to accept his clothing because it would mean that he was sacrificing his own warmth.

But he couldn't care less about himself right now. He slid his coat off and did his best to wrap it around her, giving her health priority over his without much thought. He was in the process of guiding one of her arms through the sleeve when an unfamiliar, chilling voice sounded out from behind him.

"Ah, you're finally awake."

His head whipped around, only now noticing that one side of the room had no wall, only metal bars. A man with a canine-like sneer was staring at him through them, his shaggy blonde hair falling over one his eyes.

"I was starting to think that Mard hit you too hard. But it looks like I'll be able to play with you after all."

His hair color identified him as the same man that had tackled and pinned Lucy to the ground. Gray narrowed his eyes as he ground out, "Who the fuck are you?"

The man's sneer only widened, "Name's Jackal. I'm not gonna bother asking for yours though. I'm more interested in blondie."

The raven haired boy instinctively pulled Lucy closer to him, his lips pulling back in a snarl. If the situation were different, he would have chastised himself for acting like Natsu. But this man was clearly dangerous, and Gray didn't want to take his attention off of him, not even for a second.

"So…" the blonde man continued, ignoring Gray's fierce glare and turning his focus to the girl that was nestled in his lap, "Is she a good fuck?"

"What?" Gray ground out, daring the man to repeat himself.

Jackal's smirk grew, clearly relishing in the effect that his words had on the raven haired boy, "Oh, don't pretend that you haven't fucked her. Doesn't that _thing_ growing inside her belong to you? Let me tell ya, I was pretty surprised when I started stripping her and found out that it wasn't just the padding of her coat that made her look fat."

So that was why some of her clothes were missing. Gray's veins filled with fury, and he could clench his fists tight enough to contain his rage, "What the hell did you do to her?!"

Jackal huffed out a displeased breath as he heavily settled onto a crate that rested just outside the cell, his hair shifting and allowing Gray to catch sight of four thin, scratch marks that ran over the man's left eye and were beginning to scab over, "Nothing yet. She was a feisty bitch. Had to knock her out after she took her fingernails to my face."

Gray fought off the proud smile that threatened to form. Like he had thought about before, Lucy never was one to go down easy, and being pregnant had only increased her drive and motivation.

"Tried to have my way with her again when we got back here, but I could only take her pants off before Mard stopped me. He said he had stuff to do to her before I could have her. It's all good though," Jackal continued, a sadistic smile spreading across his lips, "I'll have plenty of time to do everything I'd like with her later. And I like 'em better when they're conscious anyways."

The raven haired boy pulled Lucy even tighter against him, "I won't let you touch her. If you so much as lay a hand on her, I'll fucking destroy you."

The canine-like man burst into laughter as if he had just heard a good joke, "I'm afraid you won't be able to do much of anything when I get around to playing with her. You'd be dead already if Tempester wasn't such a horrible shot with a bow."

"Then I guess I'm lucky to be alive," Gray sarcastically ground out.

"Lucky?" Jackal's cackling picked up in volume and intensity, "You think that you're _lucky_ to be alive right now? Do you have any idea where you are?" The man stood, his laughter dying out and a sadistic grin spreading across his features as he crouched down next to the bars, "We call ourselves Tartaros. You see, we don't have any women around here, so we'll be keeping blondie around until she's all used up and worn out. And you…you were supposed to be our dinner tonight. Mard wants to play with you a bit longer now though. But I guarantee that the time will come when we chop you up and cook you real nice. So you think you're _lucky_ to be alive? I think the contrary." His sinister laughter started again, "You know what? Maybe you did die after all. But this place ain't heaven."

He looked Gray straight in the eyes as he ground out, "Welcome to hell."

* * *

 **AN**

 **Originally, I hadn't planned for this to get so dark so fast, but like I said in the last AN, this fic is only going to be a few chapters. It looks like it'll be about five at this point since I'm going to make the last three much longer, but I'm trying to come up with more material so we can get at least a sixth chapter in here!**

 **Also, if you feel at any point that I should change the rating of this fic to M, please let me know! I personally don't think it'll get that intense, but that's just me, so really, let me know!**

 **Let me know what you thought! And thank you so much for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**SAME WARNINGS APPLY IN THIS CHAPTER AS IN THE LAST!**

* * *

" _What?! Why him?! Why can't I go with Luce, gramps?!"_

 _Gray let out a heavy sigh as Natsu shouted at Makarov, the old man visibly tired of having the same argument time and time again. The salmon haired man always acted the same whenever his duties separated him from his wife._

 _Lucy looked just as fed up with her husband as Makarov did, stepping forward to rest a hand on his shoulder, "Really, Natsu? Do you have to do this every time?"_

 _A mischievous smirk spread across the raven haired man's lips, always readily jumping on the chance to jab at his rival, "Look, the point of going hunting is to find food and you're completely useless when you go with her, flamebrain. Don't you remember what happened the last time we let you two go out together?"_

 _A blush spread across the blonde's cheeks and Natsu weakly sputtered for an explanation, "W-well…well…" his shouting resumed at full force as he turned to point an accusing finger at his rival, "What do you expect us to do when we can't get a moment of privacy 'round here 'cause we live with a bunch of nosy bastards like you!"_

" _I don't need to stumble upon another make out fest again, so yeah…I'll be going with Lucy this time."_

" _You're just jealous!"_

" _No, I'm just haunted by the memory of you sucking on each other's faces!"_

" _That's enough!" Lucy whapped them both on their shoulders._

 _Makarov he let out another heavy breath, taking advantage of the silence the blonde had brought about and clasping his hands behind his back as he looked between the three, "Gray and Lucy are going together and that's final. Your father needs you here to help with maintenance anyways, Natsu. No one knows the generator better than the two of you."_

 _Natsu gave the raven haired man one last sneer before his expression gave way to complete seriousness, "You better look out for her, frosty."_

 _Gray lightly scoffed, but his voice was still sincere as he reassured, "I always do, don't I?"_

A soft, somewhat bitter chuckle escaped Gray's lips as he let his head fall back and hit the wall he had scooted back to lean against, having carefully dragged Lucy with him so that her head rested in his lap.

If only he'd known what was going to happen, then maybe he would have let Natsu stop them from going.

And had that conversation really taken place just this morning? It felt like it'd been ages ago.

Or maybe it hadn't been just this morning. Gray didn't know how long he'd been unconscious, and there was no way for him to tell if it was light or dark outside. There were no windows in sight, and his only light came from three small candles that sat atop a metal table just outside his and Lucy's cell.

Not that having windows around would help much though. With all the ash in the atmosphere, the margin between light and dark in the outside world was slim. The sky was constantly tainted a charcoal gray, the sun only a faint glimmer of hope that was barely visible through the seemingly never ending cloud of ash.

Today's sky, or maybe it was yesterday's, had been one of the more pleasant skies to look at due to the snow clouds that had moved in. It wasn't often that it snowed as much as it had before their hunt because water didn't evaporate at the same rate that it did before the nuclear winter began. But he was grateful for the flakes when they did fall, the layers of white blanketing the ground and covering the traces of death that had been present since acid rained from the sky immediately following the widespread firestorms caused by the war. The amount decay had only increased when the world had been cut off from the sun, further heightening the dread he felt whenever he stepped outside.

He had thought that this hunt with Lucy would have been one of the better ones. Even though the chances of them actually finding game were slim, the layers of snow would at least prevent them from having to see decay all around.

And in the beginning, just like he had thought, it hadn't been so bad. They'd taken advantage of their time away from the responsibilities of living on base and pummeled each other with snowballs like they had when they were children.

But then they had been attacked and taken by those men. And even though he had only encountered one of them thus far, he knew that their futures looked very grim.

Gray had only known Jackal for no more than thirty minutes, but it was already blatantly obvious to him that something was seriously wrong with the blonde haired man, more than just his horrid desire for cannibalism and rape. His lust after and hunger for human flesh aside, Jackal seemed to be in constant conversation, talking to himself when he didn't find Gray worthy of comment. He had strolled up and down the hallway that ran in front of their cell countless times since the raven haired boy had regained consciousness, and on the first few occurrences, Gray had been sure that he'd heard the canine-like man talking to someone else. But he was always alone, chuckling at his own snide comments and even seemingly arguing with himself during a few instances.

The raven haired boy had previously believed the chances of a man like him existing were impossibly low. Everyone that lived on base, the only people he had ever known to exist, were all too good natured and selfless. People like Jackal, murderers and cannibals, had only ever resided in the seemingly unrealistic horror stories that Laxus had made up in an attempt to scare Natsu, Gray, and the other children their age when they were young enough to whole-heartedly believe his tales. But maybe those stories weren't so unrealistic after all, because it seemed like Jackal had just walked out of one of them.

Gray had to wonder if where they were being contained held any clues about the man's past. He couldn't see much of it in the dim light of the three candles, but the fact that he and Lucy were in a cell combined with his suspicion about Jackal's mental state were enough to give him a few ideas.

When society had completely crumbled, those that now lived on base hadn't stuck around in their old homes long enough to see what had become of the rest of the world. Makarov's promise of refuge from the repercussions of the nuclear war had been too promising to resist. So at the first signs of the collapse of order and reason, they had all followed him into the mountains. All of what they knew about what had happened was based on the scraps of information they received from the few stray survivors they used find every now and then. And even then, most of the survivors they had found were children that had been abandoned, far too young, and in some cases far too traumatized, to remember and make sense of all they had seen.

The blanks had been filled in by assumption, and Gray and the other children who'd been born on base were taught that when society had collapsed, the remainder of the human population was faced with two options: compete with your neighbors for limited resources or evacuate your home in hopes of finding a place with a higher chance of survival.

One thing they knew for sure was that some of the people whom society had previously referred to as heroes, people that could have possibly held the potential to prevent the collapse of order or at the very least lessen the number of lives lost in the chaos, abandoned their posts with the goal of ensuring their own survival. Grandeeny, Natsu's mother, hadn't been able to do anything but watch as the number of her coworkers that showed up to the hospital continuously dwindled day by day until only she and a dedicated few remained.

With a number a patients that was that drastically greater than that of the staff, the hospital became an easy target for raids. The few doctors and nurses that remained could never have even dreamed of stopping them, and the building was soon lost to complete anarchy. Igneel had dragged his wife away himself when the chaos had escalated past the point of what he was willing to go through for the others in the hospital, his wife's safety and survival his primary concern. Grandeeny had been forced to abandon her workplace, leaving behind countless patients who were unable to do anything to ensure their own survival. Out of over a hundred patients in the hospital, she and her husband had only been able to rescue a single pregnant woman, Erza's mother, and they brought her with them as they followed Makarov to safety.

Gray was beginning to formulate a theory that Jackal had come from a place that had undergone something quite similar to what had happened at the hospital Grandeeny had so unwillingly abandoned, and that it was the very same building he and Lucy were being held captive in at present.

His parents had told him what an asylum was. It was a haunting splatter of misfortune in the midst of their normally vibrant and joyful retellings of times past.

After Lucy's father had fallen into madness upon losing his wife to the epidemic that suddenly swept through their base twelve years ago, the place for those with diseases of the mind had become a topic of curiosity for Gray and the others who'd never seen what the world was like before the war. It had terrified them all, Lucy far more than the rest, to watch him mentally crumble and lose his sense of reason. Makarov had put him under constant watch after he began to show display the desire to take his own life, something that the nine year old Gray couldn't even fathom.

He'd called Lucy's father weak and pathetic for being unable to stay strong enough for his daughter like the families of the others they had lost did. Gildarts had carried on after the death of his wife for Cana, and Mira and Elfman had stayed strong to honor the memory of their dear little sister.

But contrary to what the others on base had expected, Jude's life hadn't come to a sudden end. He had more or less simply faded away, becoming less aware and comprehensive every day until the night he fell asleep and didn't open eyes again.

Of course now that he was older, Gray liked to think that he understood a portion of what Jude had gone through. His parents had done well with educating him about the horrors of the world whilst simultaneously making it seem like those dreadful things had been left in the past, their base far out of their reach. But as he'd grown older, he'd come to learn that such a thing was blatantly false. The epidemic alone had been proof of that. Death was still a very obvious threat, looming ever closer with each day more that they spent in this eternal winter.

And as he'd grown, he'd also gained a better appreciation of what it meant to love and be loved.

His family-like love for the people he'd grown up with aside, his entire perspective on the word in a more intimate sense had changed when he and his father had stumbled upon a blue haired girl collapsed in the snow during one of their hunts.

Having experienced what it felt like to love someone, not just as a friend or family but as a lifeline like Juvia was to him, he could understand how Jude had tumbled into insanity after death had claimed the one he loved most.

He was drawn out of his thoughts when the head of blonde hair in his lap shifted, a groan slipping from her lips as her eyelids crinkled. She slowly opened her eyes, blinking several times to adjust to the poor lighting before confusedly trying to focus on him.

"Hey," he croaked out, his voice catching in his throat several times. Only now did he realize how dry it was, the pain in his calf had been too intense for him to pay much attention to the rest of his body. Not knowing what else to say or how to even begin explaining where they were and what might happen to them, he muttered the first words that came to mind, "You…you feel okay?"

She squeezed her eyes shut again and let out another small groan, rolling to bury her face in his pants as she tiredly mumbled out, "M…my head...really…really hurts."

He gave her a minute to collect herself from the dreariness he knew she must be feeling considering he had gone through the very same thing. He needed her to be fully awake when he delivered the blow of the grim situation they had fallen into.

After a few more moments of groaning into his leg, she started to push herself up, a hand on her swollen belly as she confusedly looked around the concrete walls of the room to the bars trapping them inside, "What…what happened?"

Gray swallowed, unsure of where to begin, "Lucy…What's the last thing you remember?"

"We…we were hunting?" Her brows furrowed for a moment as she fought to remember, and then her face suddenly went slack, her eyes wide as her voice grew more panicked, "And then…there was a man…he…he tried to…"

"Hey," Gray shot forward to rest a comforting hand on her shoulder when he saw fear overtake the passion and endurance which were almost constantly present in her gaze. "I'm not gonna let him touch you again."

His attempt at comforting her didn't have his desired effect, her body only tensing more, "He's…he's here?"

He solemnly nodded his head, quietly continuing "The people that attacked us…they've taken us somewhere. I don't know where, but…it's definitely nowhere good." He struggled to put the rest of his thoughts into words. He hadn't seen her this terrified since they were younger, when she was constantly plagued by nightmares of her deranged father, and he knew that all he had left to say would only unnerve her more.

But nothing good would come of him hiding it from her, so he swallowed down his reluctance to deliver the rest his grim message, and let the words solemnly slip from his mouth, "These people…they're like the people from the stories that Laxus tried to scare us with when we were little. They…they eat others to survive…and Jackal, the one that attacked you in the woods…you…you already know what his intentions are…" his voice faded out as he finished speaking. He'd been brave in front of Jackal before, but now that he'd relayed all of the details to the blonde, his own fear for their future was starting to take hold as the horrid reality of their situation sunk in.

The people back on base were surely searching for them, but would they ever be able to find even a trace of where they had been taken? If it was still snowing like it had been before he'd gotten knocked out, their tracks would have long since blended in with the rest of the snow that blanketed the ground.

And if they did somehow manage to find them, they'd have absolutely no idea of what, or rather who they'd be up against. They'd never run into another group of a survivors, so the chances of one as malicious as the group they had been taken by existing so close to their own had seemed nonexistent.

But then again, the people he considered family were a force to be reckoned with too, and he knew that one pink haired idiot was fully capable of wreaking havoc all on his own, not to mention their powerhouses like Erza, Gajeel, and Laxus. He couldn't leave Juvia off that list either he supposed. She'd always been a bit more reserved than the rest of kids their age, but he knew better than anyone how passionate she was when it came to protecting the things she loved most.

He clenched his jaw, his determination renewed. His family would undoubtedly be doing everything they possibly could to figure out what happened, so he wouldn't let himself slack off and let them down. He focused back on the blonde, tightening his grip on her shoulder in reassurance, "I'm not gonna let that bastard touch you again. Not him or anyone else from this shithole. I promised Natsu I would look after you, right?"

"Yeah…" Lucy dropped her gaze to the floor, her voice small as her throat clenched at the uncertainty of their survival, "But…Natsu didn't think that we'd run into a bunch of cannibals. No one did. No matter what promises you've made…I don't think we'll be able to get through this by sheer force of will alone. They managed to take both of us out in the matter of only a few minutes." She suddenly let out a small gasp as she remembered another detail, her eyes shooting to the scarf around his calf, "What about your leg?"

"It's fine. Don't worry about it."

"I watched you get shot, Gray! That's no small concern." Her hands were quickly undoing the knot and gently unraveling his poor attempt at wrapping the wound before he could protest, her face growing slightly pale and her brows furrowing in concern as she carefully prodded at the torn flesh, "The…the head of the arrow's still in there…"

Gray hissed as her finger brushed against a particularly tender part of his calf, pressing the back of his head into the wall in a feeble attempt at dealing with the pain, "Thought so…It hurts like hell."

"I don't think it'd be smart to try and take it out…You'd just bleed more." She carefully wrapped the wound with his scarf again, doing much better than he had and wishing she had something clean to use instead all the while, "I…I don't think I could get it out with my bare hands anyways though."

"I said don't worry about it, Lucy. There's nothing you can do…Oh, I almost forgot," he turned to the two plates Jackal had slid under the bars on one of his passes, slowly dragging them closer and pushing one towards the blonde. He let out a small chuckle at the look of disgust that flashed across her face at the appearance of the overcooked fish. He knew that she absolutely appalled the taste of fish, but it was their only option, so he scooted the plate closer to her, "You need to keep up your strength. Like you said, we're not gonna get through this just by sheer force of will alone."

His lips quirked in a small smile when she slowly plucked the fish from the plate, squeezing her eyes shut as she hesitantly tore into the fish to get to the meat.

Now that she was awake, he didn't feel guilty about digging into his own meal, so he snatched his fish from the plate and dug in, spitting out bones and other inedible fragments as he went.

He paused halfway through his meal when he noticed that Lucy had already eaten just as much as he had despite her loathing for fish, something that surprised him given his tendency to scarf things down and her tendency to eat in a much more dignified manner. Maybe it was another trait Natsu had rubbed off on her, or it maybe it was a lot simpler than that and she was just as desperate for food as he was.

Their portions weren't nearly enough to satisfy their hunger, though he couldn't say that he expected their captors to give more than just the bear minimum. Even though he had only met one of them, he could tell that they weren't the type of people to share their resources with others. And after all, they were captives, not guests.

His eyes traveled down to her stomach, sudden guilt filling him as he looked over the bump. He knew she was terrified, but he couldn't even imagine the extent to which her fear must have grown. The fact that she was with child probably drove her further towards terror, not only because only because it made her somewhat more vulnerable, but also because the life of her child was at stake.

Gray looked back to his fish, letting out a heavy sigh as he plopped it back on his plate.

It wasn't just Lucy that he had to look out for, but her unborn child, too. She was nourishing another human, making their situation all the more dire.

But he still wouldn't go back on his promise, no matter how high the odds were stacked against them.

He was starving, but he forced himself to forget about his own hunger and slid his plate towards her, "Here, you have the rest of mine."

Her eyes quickly traveled between the fish and his face several times before she persistently shook her head, "No way. Didn't you just say we need to keep our strength up? You need it just as much as I do."

"But you're eating for two."

Her drive to argue against him visibly deflated, her voice small, "But…I…fine."

Gray snorted when she snatched the fish from the plate after finishing the rest of hers, scarfing it down despite having whole-heartedly protested against the idea only moments ago.

He was grateful that she'd given in, knowing it must have been hard for her considering her stubbornness when it came to receiving help at the expense of others.

While they were held here, he hoped that she'd keep that mindset of looking out for herself for the sake of her baby instead of worrying so much about him like she normally would. He didn't know how much he would be able to do to protect her when he could barely stand, but he'd damn well push himself to the limits. He'd need her to look out for herself to make up for what he wouldn't be able to do, and he prayed that when combined with his own efforts, it would be enough for them to make it out of this hellhole alive.

* * *

Natsu didn't fully realize that they'd made it back to base until Laxus and Bixlow slammed the heavy, metal doors of the bunker shut behind them. Their little search group had been far too few in number to stay out in the frigid atmosphere in an attempt to figure out where their comrades had gone, and with night approaching faster than any of them would have liked, Erza had lead them back to base so that they might return in the morning with more supplies and a greater number.

The salmon haired man had his wife's coat bundled in his arms, desperately clinging onto it as if it would somehow bring her back to him. It was the only trace of her that they'd been able to find, and he'd been in a daze ever since he had seen it strewn across the ground, not far from where the snow was tainted red with blood.

Erza suddenly set a hand on his shoulder, gentle understanding and patience in her gaze as she nodded her head towards where the tunnel that lead to the entrance gave way to the commons of their bunker.

Natsu swallowed heavily. He wasn't ready to go back and tell the rest of his family. Doing so was like admitting defeat, something the salmon haired man rarely did. And what they had found in the woods was surely be cause for fear and panic. The blood was evidence enough that Gray and Lucy hadn't simply gotten lost, and that there was a lot more out there in the world than they had expected and been prepared for.

Out of everyone on base, he was dreading telling Juiva the most. She was in the same situation as he was, and he knew exactly what she'd feel like upon hearing the news. His heart ached, deadened by the weight of the uncertainty of the whole situation, and he would never wish that feeling upon any of his family.

He still followed behind the rest as they make their way down the entrance though, knowing that no matter how much he was dreading it, there were certain things that had to be done no matter what.

Everyone's eyes had zeroed in on him and the two that had accompanied him in his search as they entered the large space, and his fists clenched when he recognized pity in the midst of the anger, shock, and dread that was present in their gazes. Their group had only just returned, so neither he nor Gajeel nor Erza had said a word about what'd they'd found in the forest. But the fact that Lucy and Gray were nowhere in sight was answer enough to the unspoken question.

"I'll go tell the old man what we found," Gajeel broke off from the group, weaving through the tables in the commons and towards the man in charge.

Natsu noticed that Erza stayed close by, probably waiting to see what he would do before she dismissed herself from his side. And he was grateful for it, feeling like his knees might give out on him at any second like they had in the forest earlier, when he had first laid eyes upon the blood.

Several of the people gathered in the large space jumped when a chair was suddenly flipped over, everyone's focuses snapping to the direction Gajeel had gone.

He must have just delivered the news of their findings to Makarov.

Erza tentatively rested her hand on Natsu's shoulder once more, "Makarov's probably going to make an announcement soon. You should go find a seat."

The salmon haired man numbly nodded his head, feeling too dazed to do much else other than obey her command.

His eyes found his family, his _biological_ family, amongst the rest, seated at a table on the outskirts of the large space. They all quietly watched him as he made his way over to them, resting his wife's coat on the table in front of him as he settled onto the bench beside Wendy. His sister immediately found one of his hands and clasped it tightly between her own. He desperately squeezed back, her grip on him reassuring him that he wasn't alone in his fight against the horrid nightmare that threatened to crush him beneath its weight.

And although they weren't physically connected to him at the moment like Wendy was, he drew strength from his parent's presence too. He knew he'd always be able to make it through as long as they were nearby, his mother's gentle reassurance and father's blazing drive more than enough to keep him going.

Nothing had to be said for them to know his feelings, an ability his family held that came in the form of both a blessing and a curse at times, though he didn't know which category it fell under at the moment.

When he did finally raise his focus from his wife's coat, he caught sight of Makarov climbing atop one of the tables in the commons, the old man's gaze finding his in the midst of the crowd. Makarov's lips quirked at the corners in the smallest of smiles, his eyes doing the rest of the work in his attempt at consoling the salmon haired man.

Natsu wanted to look away, Makarov's reassuring gaze having the opposite effect and only making him more upset.

His throat clenched painfully when he did look to the side though, catching sight of a solemn Gajeel gently passing Gray's broken bow into the quivering hands of a blue haired girl. He saw his own feelings reflected in Juvia's eyes as she clutched the fractured wood, the usual passion shining in her irises giving way to a strange mixture of despair, fury, and utter confusion.

"Listen up, brats!"

The hushed conversations throughout the space ceased upon Makarov's shout, all eyes focusing on the old man.

Makarov sighed deep in his throat, visibly somewhat reluctant to share the situation, "Gray and Lucy have yet to return. Based on the scene that Natsu, Erza, and Gajeel discovered in the forest, it's obvious that they were attacked."

At the news, several shocked gasps rang through the air, something Natsu had expected to happen. He'd been slow to process the fact that they had mostly likely gotten themselves entangled with another group of humans too, but he hadn't dwelt on it for long. His wife's safety was at the forefront of his mind, and Gray's too, matters that he found much more concerning.

"We know nothing more than the location of the attack, and we know little about what type of people the remainder of humanity has become. But that will not stop us! Whoever their attackers were, they have commit a grave sin. They have done the unspeakable!" Makarov's voice grew in volume as his anger became more apparent, "We'll search to the ends of this world to find Gray and Lucy if we have to! We will bring our family back!"

Cheers filled the commons, echoing through the metal space like cries of war. People were soon shooting out of their seats, rushing to make plans and prepare.

Natsu stayed seated as the sounds of conversation picked up again, louder and more exuberant than they had been before. Unlike the others, Makarov's speech had only made him feel more downtrodden. It wasn't like he didn't trust the old man's words, it was simply that he hated the fact they had to be said in the first place.

After a few more moments of a conversation he didn't pay much attention to, his family left the table to aid in the preparations, Igneel giving him a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder in passing.

Natsu wasn't sure how long he sat there, his eyes staring at Lucy's coat but not really seeing it. Thousands of different gruesome possibilities were running through his head, all focused on his wife and rival. But when he forced himself out of his dangerous trail of thought, he was no longer sitting alone.

Sometime during the bustle, Juvia had lowered herself onto the bench on the other side of his table, filling the space his parents had formerly occupied. She hadn't said a word, the tear tracks on her cheeks catching the light of the fluorescent bulbs above them.

Part of him wanted to comfort her, but he couldn't think of anything he might say to ease her suffering. He was in the same situation as her, and he knew that if the only thing that would make him feel better was Lucy's presence, then the same thing must be true for her with Gray in the blonde's place. They weren't married yet like he and Lucy were, but that they didn't mean they loved each other any less.

"Hey," Erza greeted solemnly as she settled next to him. She glanced between the salmon haired man and Juvia tentatively before softly informing, "Makarov's given the search group the clear to leave first thing in the morning."

"I'm coming with," Natsu demanded immediately.

Juvia eagerly jumped into the conversation as well, "Me too."

Erza only nodded in response, her lips quirking in the smallest of momentary smiles, "Of course. I expected nothing less from the two of you." She let out a heavy sigh, "This is tough on all of us, but I can't imagine how it must feel for you guys. I don't have much to offer in words of comfort, but I know that those two will look out for each other like they always do. So you don't have to worry too much, right?"

Her words simply hung in the air for a moment before Natsu acknowledged them with small nod.

It was strange to Natsu, but understandable, when the blue haired girl across from him made no response to the comment about Gray and Lucy's relationship. He knew that the situation was far too serious for such an act, but he almost wished that she would do something of the sort so that he would have some sense of normalcy.

Erza's lips pressed into a grim line, softly continuing on talking by herself when it became clear that she'd get no verbal response, "We're not sure, but it is likely that it won't be as simple as just finding them. If they really have been taken by another group of survivors, then we'll probably have to fight to get them back. So you both should get some sleep. You'll need to be well rested if you want to help Gray and Lucy to the best of your abilities."

Natsu's gaze dropped to his lap at the mention of getting sleep. He was dreading going back to his room for the night, and it was part of the reason that he had stayed seated at the table by himself for so long. He had grown used to having Lucy by his side while he slept, and he knew that spending the night without her warmth was going to be hell. He would lay in his bed and try to get some sleep for Lucy's sake like Erza had said, even though he was fully aware of the fact that there was no chance of such a thing happening when his wife was nowhere to be found.

He let Erza pull him from seat and lead him down the hall to his room despite the hell that lay before him, giving Juvia a soft nod when he caught her eye as Gajeel lead her away.

And while he passed by the room adjacent to his, the one that the boys had shared until Natsu had gotten married and the one that Gray still slept in every night, he prayed with all of his being that wherever his wife and best friend were, Gray was following through with his side of their promise.

* * *

Gray startled awake when a raucous creaking echoed between the concrete walls of their cell, knocking Lucy's head from where it had fallen to rest against his shoulder and subsequently spurring the blonde into consciousness as well.

The sounds of movement assaulted his ears, sharp footfalls on the hard ground and the rustling of clothes. But he was still in the process of waking up and he couldn't see a thing, leaving him momentarily unable to pinpoint the source. The candles must have been extinguished, because when he opened his eyes all he could see was endless black.

And suddenly, Lucy's presence was torn away from his side, accompanied by a horrid shriek from the blonde.

He snapped into alertness in an instant, the sounds of motion around him giving him more than enough information to figure out what was happening.

They were trying to take Lucy away from him.

He surged forward into the darkness and latched onto something, his own coat if he had to guess from the feel of the material.

A hand desperately clenched on top of his, Lucy clinging onto him like a lifeline as she was pulled away by a force that neither of them could see.

Gray latched onto her wrist with his other hand as well and tried to shoot to his feet, knowing he'd be able to do much more than just play tug-of-war with the blonde if he could stand. But agonizing pain shot up his calf as soon as his muscles moved to fulfill the action, and his leg gave out on him entirely as soon as he put any weight on it.

He heard a sneer and his grip on her was tested again as she was tugged, "Get off!"

His desperation to save the blonde strengthened when he recognized the voice as Jackal's. He had promised her that he wouldn't let that bastard do anything to her ever again, and he wasn't going to back on his word, no matter what it cost him.

A boot suddenly collided with his temple, the same side that had been struck with the butt of a rifle earlier. He was sure that his vision would be swimming if he could actually make anything out in the darkness, but he didn't need to be able see to know that there was blood spilling from his head once again, whether from the same injury or a new wound, he couldn't tell.

His hands had slipped from their hold on Lucy's wrist when he had been hit, so despite the pounding of his head, he lunged blindly into the darkness again, his hands desperately grappling for her in the shadows.

A sudden weight pressing down on his injured calf pinned him place, and a pained shout escaped his lips before he could think to hold it back.

"Gray!"

He was vaguely aware of Lucy desperately crying for him, her terror audible in her choked screaming. It didn't sound like she was as close as he wanted her to be, and he feared that she had already been dragged beyond the bars of their cell.

The pressure on his leg painfully increased before it disappeared altogether, but he didn't have time to move before another seemingly invisible force struck him square in the face. More hits showered down on him, the world suddenly growing hot and white.

And just like before, all he could do was listen to Lucy's screams fading into silence as his mind spiraled into unconsciousness once more.

* * *

"Let me go!"

Lucy fought like hell against the man that was dragging her up a flight of stairs, repeatedly throwing her head back and thrashing her limbs in attempt to escape his sturdy hold. One of his arms was wrapped around her neck, the other moving from where his hand had been fisted in her hair to wind around her middle.

He suddenly whipped her to the side, kicking one of the many doors in the hallway open and flooding the hallway with the dim light of the numerous candles inside.

Lucy barely managed to catch herself as she was thrown to the floor, and she turned to give the man that'd been dragging her a furious glare as soon as she'd collected herself. She faltered for a moment when she recognized him as the same man that had pinned her in the snow earlier, involuntarily freezing up for a moment when she remembered the feel of his hands roaming across her body.

He only smirked down at her, a horrid chill racing down her spine when he swiped the tip of his tongue across his lips.

Another man followed into the room behind them, letting out a heavy, almost annoyed sigh before irritably commanding, "That's enough, Jackal."

"Just make sure you leave some of her for me, Mard. I'm that one that caught her for you after all."

The canine-like man gave her one last glance before he left, his twisted grin holding a morbid promise that when they met again, he would do much more than just throw her around.

The blonde slowly rose to her feet, her eyes scanning the room for an out. There was a metal bed frame in the corner, and a poor excuse for a desk that was littered with candles, their wax spilling in puddles across its surface. She felt a spark of hope when she saw a window, but it was extinguished when she looked beyond the murky glass and distinguished bars from the darkness of night outside. The only other exit was the door she had been thrown through, and the remaining man, Mard if she remembered correctly, blocked her path to it.

She cautiously wrapped an arm around her swollen stomach as he lowered himself into one of the two chairs in the room. His stare was penetrating, almost predatory, and when he spoke his voice was unnervingly calm, "Please, have a seat."

Lucy didn't budge, her jaw clenched and her eyes blazing as she only glared back in response.

He propped his head in his hand, lazily crossing one of his legs over the other.

It was then that she noticed the tip of his boot was caked with blood, the thick liquid dripping to splatter against the floor.

He huffed out a small breath, the air escaping his mouth in a visible cloud due to the chilled atmosphere, "I don't share Jackal's desires. I simply wish to talk with you. So please, have a seat."

His words were polite enough, but the underlying tone with which he uttered them promised dire consequences if she didn't follow through.

It wasn't part of her personality to give in so easily, but Gray had been right when he'd given her his food earlier. It wasn't just her own life she had to look out for, but her child's life, too. So no matter how much she wanted to lunge at the man, she swallowed down her fury and slowly lowered herself into the chair across from him, the old wood creaking as she did.

His lips quirked at one of the corners, a satisfied smirk appearing and fading in an instant, "That's better." He studied her in silence for a moment before finally setting out on fulfilling his intentions, "The man we brought you in with…is he your husband?"

The blonde wrapped her arms tighter around her stomach protectively, unnerved by the way he was staring at her, "What makes you think that?"

"I'm much more observant than Jackal. I've seen the ring on your finger. In the old days, that was considered a symbol of marriage, no?"

Lucy anxiously ran her thumb over the thin, golden ring, mentally cursing her past self for wanting to stick with tradition. She slid her hands further into the long sleeves of Gray's coat to hide the ring from Mard's sight. Even if he'd already seen it, she didn't like him being able to openly stare at something that meant so much to her.

"I've been keeping an eye on the two of you. He gave you his food, and you had fallen asleep on his shoulder. The affection with which you treat each other…isn't that called love? "

His ignorant assumption only heightened the anger that she felt towards the man, and before she could stop herself, reckless, charged words were slipping from her mouth, "I can love someone without being _in love_ with them. There's a difference. But I get the feeling that you people don't care about matters of the heart, so how would you know that, right?"

Other than raising a single brow, Mard's expression stayed the same, unchanging even as she spouted those spiteful words.

"And why do you care about whether or not he's my husband? It's not like your plans for us depend on if he is or isn't."

"So, I take it that he isn't? I had noticed that there was no ring on his finger, but after watching the two of you, I was uncertain of your relationship." He lazily switched his legs so that the other was crossed on top, "That's very good news for me then. You see, food is scarce these days, but I'm sure you're very aware of that already. We were out hunting in the same forest after all, so you must know how rare it is to find game. Since that man isn't him, I assume your husband is still out there somewhere, correct? And are there more than just the three of you?"

Lucy caught on in an instant, "Gray told me what kind of people you were. So what? You want to know where my group is so you can hunt them?" The blonde had to resist the urge to let out an incredulous laugh, "Good fucking luck with that. They're not the type of people to let themselves be overrun by a bunch of psychopaths like you."

"I'm simply doing whatever I can so that my people and I can survive in this world. Don't you hunt animals for the very same reason?"

Lucy clenched her jaw, "If you have to kill others to do it, then you aren't worthy of surviving."

The blonde almost wished she could take the words back as soon she the saw subtlest change in his features, his bored expression suddenly dropping and giving way to a glimpse of restrained fury.

It was then that the blonde realized her mistake. It was stupid of her to make jibes at him when he clearly held the advantage over her, at least in the physical sense. But she couldn't help herself. Her reaction had been almost instinctive when he had threatened her family. Maybe Gray was right and Natsu had started to rub off on her after all.

She didn't have time to think on it though, the man in front of her a far greater concern at the moment. He said nothing, and Lucy realized that she had been wrong when she had thought about how much she hated it when he spoke. She decided then that she much rather preferred it when his voice filled the air, because his silence was far more terrifying than any of the words that had slipped from his mouth thus far.

Without any indication of what he was going to do, he was suddenly lunging out his chair, his arm pulled back as he flew towards her. The blonde didn't have time to dodge or block, the man closing the short distance between them before she could make a move. His fist struck her square the in the face, the blonde shrieking when she felt and _heard_ something crack.

When she finally managed pull herself out of the momentary white cloud of pain, she felt the wood of her chair jabbing painfully into her spine, the back of her head stinging from an impact that she hadn't been aware of until just then. Her chair had either tipped backwards or broken entirely with the force of his punch, the blonde vaguely realizing that she was suddenly laid across the hard, freezing floor.

And Mard must have followed through with the momentum of his punch, settling his weight on top of her and straddling her hips without any care for her swollen stomach.

His hands wound around her throat, beginning to strangle her as he hissed in her face, "You think that you're more worthy of survival because you love others?! You're a fool! Love makes you weak, and only the strong deserve to live in this world!"

His grip tightened and his arms began to shake in rhythm with his shouting, black spotting the edges of her vision as he suffocated her. He continued to scream at her as he squeezed, but she couldn't bring herself to focus on any of the words that he was spouting.

' _Am I…going to die?'_

Her hands were desperately clutching at both of his, hopelessly fighting to pry his fingers from around her neck. She tried to throw him off by bucking her hips, but her feet kept sliding on the floor, preventing her from getting a good base to push against.

She didn't want this to be how she went. She wasn't supposed to die before she could give birth and watch her child grow up. She wasn't supposed to die before she got to see the world go back to normal.

But she couldn't do a damn thing, her struggle against him only growing more sluggish the longer his hands stayed wrapped around her throat.

She'd broken her promise to Gray. She'd said that she'd look after herself, and she may have just brought about her own doom.

And Gray might've gotten caught in the crossfire. He could be laying dead back in their cell for all she knew. It sounded like he had been hit in the head before she had been dragged away, and she knew that blows to the head could be lethal if given enough force in the right place. If he really had been struck in the head again, that would have been his second time as of late, not to mention how much blood he'd lost from the wound on his leg.

And of course, she couldn't help but think about Natsu in this moment. Would he ever find out what had happened to her? And if these people really had fallen as low as cannibalism, would there even be anything left of her to find?

It was gruesome thought, but one so close to reality that she couldn't help but wonder, ' _Is this really my end?'_

* * *

 **AN**

 **I'm not really happy with that last scene and I feel terrible for leaving it on a cliffy like that, but...this chapter is way too overdue and I didn't want to delay it any longer! Plus, this chapter is almost five times longer than the previous two, so...yeah.**

 **Anywaaaayyyss, I'm finally back! I hadn't intended to be gone this long, so I apologize for the ungodly amount of time that it took me to update! The first of two reasons: I had planned on taking a little hiatus after I finished Scarlet Heart that was maybe gonna last a week or two, but then life got in the way, as life tends to do, and stuff just kept coming up and when I did have time I was too exhausted both mentally and physically to write, so yeah…And second: I made the mistake of posting this fic before I really knew where I was going with it in terms of tying all of my ideas into a feasible plotline, so I literally had no idea what to write. That's also the reason why the first two chapters were so short :/ But have no fear! I've recently storyboarded this entire thing, so I've got the last two chapters completely planned out minus a few fine details, so it won't be long before this thing's finished and we can move onto my next story (which I'm super super excited about btw)**

 **I've actually got quite a bit to say about this chapter, so let us wrap up the apologies and begin~**

 **-First and foremost, I want to point out that Lucy, Gray, and the Tartaros peeps were originally the only characters that were supposed to appear in this fic. I only decided to add in scenes with Natsu when I made the decision to make Lucy pregnant with his child, so if you're noticing a lack of Natsu scenes it's because I didn't have any planned for him originally. Same can be said for Juvia and the other FT characters: I didn't have scenes planned for them, but I'm struggling to come up with some and fit them in here because I know a lot of you want to see those moments.**

 **-I tried to hint at this in the fic, but this world is supposed to be the result of if the Cold War went the way everyone feared it was going to and nuclear weapons had been used in a flown blown world war. So when envisioning this world, think more about what the world looked like forty years ago instead of present day. Hence why the asylum is super creepy like those of the past.**

 **-I hope this came across in the story, but if not I'll explain a bit about why I'm trying to change Gray's and Lucy's characters a bit in a few aspects. I'm really trying to emphasize that since they've grown up in Makarov's bunker in this AU, they've never really experienced anything like this before. Of course they've still experienced loss since they've had family members pass away, but all of those deaths were natural, not caused by external forces. They've only ever heard of murderers and the like in stories, but now they've been taken by a group people that kill others to survive. So that's why I'm really trying to emphasize their panic and fear as I feel that since they've never encountered anything like this before in this AU they're a bit different from their actual FT characterizations.**

 **-It's for this same reason that Natsu's a bit different in this fic, I'm kind of playing off how he was in the last chapters of FT. I feel that he became a bit less impulsive and thought things through more often after the one year time skip, so I'm kind of basing the Natsu in this AU off of some those changes I noticed in his characterization. And I fully realize that he literally has said only three words in this entire fic other than the flashback, but that will change next chapter, I promise. He'll be a bit more himself having had time to come to terms with the situation.**

 **-The same can be said for the rest of the characters as they set out to find out what happened to Gray and Lucy as well: They really won't know where to begin since nothing like this has ever happened before, but their drive to find their lost comrades will still have the same intensity as in FT (which I hope was noticeable in the very FT-like speech Makarov gave). Just know that changing those aspects was a conscious decision and I'm doing it on purpose.**

 **Now that I've babbled on for a bit, I want to finish by saying thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

**SAME WARNINGS APPLY IN THIS CHAPTER AS IN PREVIOUS CHAPTERS! Also, I'll warn you that this chapter may be kind of gruesome to some, so if you're sensitive to that stuff, you've been warned.**

 **Additionally, note that there will be a tiny portion about religion, but it's very brief. I don't think anyone should be offended by it, but I'm just taking precautions since I know that religion can be a sensitive topic for some.**

* * *

 _Mard's hands wound around Lucy's throat, beginning to strangle her as he hissed in her face, "You think that you're more worthy of survival because you love others?! You're a fool! Love makes you weak, and only the strong deserve to live in this world!"_

 _His grip tightened and his arms began to shake in rhythm with his shouting, black spotting the edges of her vision as he suffocated her. He continued to scream at her as he squeezed, but she couldn't bring herself to focus on any of the words that he was spouting._

The blonde's body fought back on instinct, her hips squirming and her hands blindly thrashing through the air in a futile attempt to do something, _anything_ to get him off.

 _'Am I…going to die?'_ as her hands tried to pry his fingers from around her throat and a thousand thoughts rushed through her head, all focused on those she considered family.

Everyone back on base, the people who had raised her after her parents had passed and the people she'd grown up with like siblings. She'd be leaving them all behind, taking her unborn child with her and ending whatever chance they'd had at life.

Gray inevitably crossed her mind as well, but he might have already beaten her into the afterlife.

And of course, her primary focus was him…Natsu, her dear husband. She hadn't given him a proper goodbye. Hell, she'd even been kind of ticked off with him when she'd seen him last. She undeniably felt regret that she'd left him with nothing more than a quick, somewhat insincere peck on the lips. But she wasn't too caught up in her bitterness about the manner of their farewell because she had faith that he knew how much she loved him. That was how their relationship worked. Their love was built upon years and years of their respect and admiration for one another, so no matter how much they fought, they always knew that nothing could tear their love apart.

Tears began to stream from Lucy's eyes without her volition as her body started to feel unbearably hot, her mind beginning to disconnect with her limbs as a terrifying numbness spread through them. Her feet slid on the floor until her legs had ceased their struggling altogether, her fingers slowly uncurling from his hands when she couldn't find the strength to hold onto them anymore.

And finally, there was release.

The first unrestricted breath burned as it travelled into her lungs, but she hopelessly gasped for more air, her body screaming for it after having been deprived.

As Mard's hands uncoiled from around her throat when he slowly stood, she rolled onto her side, curling into herself and continuing to choke on the air she desperately dragged in. One of her hands tentatively brushed over where his hands had strangled her, attempting to rub away the pain that still clung to her throat. A small, hoarse shriek shredded her throat as soon as her fingers made contact with the abused skin, her eyes still burning with tears.

He stared down at her like he was a predator relishing in its downed prey, a fierce glint in his eyes and the faintest hint of a smirk upon his face. But his lips quickly contorted, pulling back in a sinister sneer before a chilling, growl-like snarl tore from his throat as he lifted his leg in preparation.

A hoarse scream slipped through her lips when his booted heel came crushing down on one of her hands, a look of upmost contempt on his face as he twisted his foot and ground her bones into the cold metal floor, "You're a fool. You'll realize that soon enough."

Just when she thought her hand might snap, the pressure disappeared, her bones still aching with how they had been pushed to the limit.

"I'll show you that love is weakness. You'll see very soon just how wrong you are."

The sharp sound of the metal door slamming shut was the last thing she heard from him, and she was left to herself in the dreary room. She couldn't bring herself to move off of the cold floor, too paralyzed by fear and pain to do more than curl further into herself.

So she stayed on the ground, shivering and shaking as tears continued to slip from her eyes. She chastised herself for a moment, calling herself weak and urging her body to take this chance and do _something_ to figure out how the hell she was going to get out of here.

But the tears just wouldn't stop.

That had been too close. She'd never thought she'd have to think of Natsu and the rest of her family in that way, like she'd never get the chance to say goodbye. Her life wasn't supposed to be cruelly torn from her before it was her time. They were supposed to be safe on their base, and she'd pass away peacefully in her sleep when she was wrinkled with age, having lived a joyous life with her husband, children, and the rest of their mismatched family.

But that had been _too damn close._ Her throat still burned, and it hurt to simply breathe, to drag in the substance that was key to her survival. It was horribly cruel that such was the case, that the very thing which gave her life was torturing her so.

Her hand quivered as she painstakingly moved it from her throat to rest her fingertips on her nose, her skin immediately becoming slick with blood. It was broken, she was sure. It hurt like hell, and she couldn't breathe out of it, her nostrils flooding with blood and blocking the air's passageway.

She pulled her quivering hand back and glanced at the blood that coated her fingertips before exhaustedly letting it fall to the floor, her tears continuing to flow at full force as she caught sight of her wedding ring.

She had been strong in front of Mard before, and she had fought like hell against Jackal as he'd dragged her from her cell. But now…she was truly terrified. Jackal had managed to restrain her twice now, and she hadn't been able to do a thing when Mard had attacked and nearly killed her. Her nose was broken, bruises were forming on her hand and around her throat, and her body was unbearably heavy with the stress and exhaustion of fighting back against her captors with little to no sustenance in her body. Not to mention the fact that she was pregnant, something which had put her at a disadvantage long before she had fallen hostage to the psychopaths in this hellhole.

And Gray…he had to be suffering, too. The head of an arrow was still embedded in his calf, and she'd heard the sounds of him being beaten as she was dragged away from their cell.

Earlier, they'd talked about having the willpower to get themselves out of this horrid place. But now, she wasn't so sure that either of their bodies were capable of being the vessels for such a feat.

She clenched her hands and curled even further into herself, burying her face in the collar of Gray's coat as she fought to stop her tears. Their futures looked very grim, but she knew that all hope wasn't lost, so she'd try to stay strong in the meantime.

' _Please, Natsu…get here soon.'_

* * *

Gray let out a groan as he stirred into consciousness once more, though unlike the last two times, he was fully aware of what was happening despite the horrid pounding of his head.

He painfully tried to push himself up into a sitting position, his arms shaking exhaustedly as they struggled under the weight of his upper body. But he couldn't even get himself a fraction of an inch off the floor, gritting his teeth as he fought to get his body to obey his command. But he was too weak. Everything was numb, though he didn't know if that was because of the cold or if his senses had been so overwhelmed by the pain of being beaten that he had completely lost the ability to feel it. Despite his lack of feeling, of the cold and of the pain, he couldn't stop shivering. His muscles spasmed beyond his control every now and then, and there was a terrifying absence of bodily awareness in his right calf, almost like it wasn't even there.

He swallowed dryly as he abandoned his attempts at sitting up, counting dehydration as another possible cause for his physical state. There was quite a bit of blood on the concrete floor beneath him too, and he briefly took note that one of the candles had been lit again.

His heart clenched when he became aware of the lack of another's presence.

He was completely alone in the cell. Lucy was gone.

Jackal had come and stolen her away, and the raven haired boy hadn't been able to do a damn thing.

He was sick of being unconscious and losing his sense of time, and a thousand possibilities of what was happening to the blonde were running through his head. She could have been with Jackal for hours by now for all he knew, and all he had done was lay on the floor of their cell.

He grit his teeth as he felt tears of frustration and fear gather in his eyes. He normally wasn't one to cry, but their current situation had left him feeling so utterly hopeless that he couldn't stop himself.

He hadn't even been able to bring himself to stand. He was useless. Utterly and completely useless.

A glint of silver in the dim light of the single candle caught his eye, and a long-forgotten means of receiving comfort resurfaced in his mind. His father's necklace must have slipped free of his shirt during his beating earlier, and now it lay in the puddle of blood on the floor before him.

Normally, he would have scoffed at the idea the silver cross brought to mind, not one to admit that he needed help so easily, and from a source that he wasn't sure even existed no less. But while he was injured as severely as he was, the bodily strength that he had always relied on was completely worthless.

So, for the first time in years, he exhaustedly reached forward and hopelessly clutched onto the silver cross that was tethered to his neck, his knuckles turning white as he desperately clenched his eyes shut in prayer.

He hadn't prayed in years, not since his mother and younger sibling had passed during childbirth all those years ago. And even then, his father had been the one doing most of the praying, urging his son to try and find hope amidst all the darkness that had befallen them. But Gray's hopeless attempts at receiving aid from a greater being had gone unanswered then, so he had given up on having faith. He had only kept the silver cross strung around his neck because of the memories it held of his parents and happier times that were long gone.

But now, he was desperate enough to call on any force that was listening.

His prayer didn't have any words, but he mentally poured every plea and cry for help into his efforts, hoping with every fiber of his being that someone would answer. He was certain his family would come for them, but for all he knew, they might already to be too late.

A raucous chuckling drug him out of his cry for aid, and he opened his eyes to see Jackal standing just beyond the metal bars of the cell.

Upon seeing him, the fear in Gray's heart lessened, but only a fraction. At least now he knew that wherever Lucy was, it wasn't with Jackal. But at the same time, he hadn't met anyone else from this horrid place, and he didn't know whether or not Jackal was the worst of these cannibals.

The canine-like man continued to chuckle, "You still believe in a God? And you had the gall to call me insane."

Gray clenched his hands even tighter around the cross, mentally cursing himself for appearing so weak in front of the enemy. But there was nothing he could do to physically threaten the man, so he poured every bit of spite into his voice as he hoarsely spat, "So what? You don't even care to know my name, so why do you give a shit about my beliefs?"

"I'm simply curious." Jackal plopped himself down on the same crate he had been sitting upon during their first conversation, "So tell me…if a God exists, then why'd he let the world turn out like this?"

The raven haired boy swallowed. He'd often wondered the same thing himself, so completely torn up about the way his life was and too mournful over all that happened to believe in the existence of any divine power.

But he and his family were still alive, and that had to count for something, right? The fact that a group as large and as morally driven as his was had survived in this cruel world for a little over twenty years was enough of a miracle for him to have at least a smidgeon of belief in the concept of divine intervention, even if he hadn't acknowledged that smidgeon in years.

He struggled to find the right words, some small part of him briefly pondering over why he was even bothering to respond to Jackal in the first place. And he wondered if he even had the right to talk of faith when he hadn't displayed any since he was small boy.

Gray gave up on trying to think of something to say beforehand and just let the words slip from his mouth as they came, "Well…we did get ourselves into this mess in the first place. It was humanity's shitty decisions that made the world like this, and we have to suffer the consequences. So, I guess…maybe this is his way of testing us. He gave us the ability to choose and now he wants to see if we'll make the right decisions. We've already screwed up once, but…maybe the fact that we're still alive means he's giving us a second chance." He spluttered out a cough, bitterly chuckling to himself before sliding his gaze to the blond man beyond the bars, "I'll guess we'll all find out eventually, right?"

Jackal hummed, a mocking grin spreading across his lips as he nodded, "I suppose you'll be finding out much quicker than me, though." He quirked a brow as he looked the raven haired boy over, "We weren't planning on keeping you around for longer than a few days, but with the way you look, I doubt you'll last that long."

Gray wanted to fight back, to spit a few words to get under Jackal's skin and show that he wasn't going to accept defeat. But he was absolutely exhausted, the weight of his worries and the uncertainty of the whole situation too much for him to take.

He swallowed heavily, tiredly sucking in a few shallow breaths before breathing out, "Where's Lucy?"

Jackal scoffed at the traces of fear in his voice, smirking as he informed, "With the boss."

Although he was terrified of the answer, he had to know it, so he tentatively asked, "What's…what's he doing with her?"

The blond man moved from his spot on the crate, crouching down next to the bars and making sure Gray could see every detail of his cruel expression, "Mard said he just wanted to talk with her, but he's never really been the type to express himself through words. He's got a short temper, you see, and that chick's got fire. She's certainly more than enough to set him off. That being said, blondie might not look as pretty as she once did the next time you see her."

Gray let out a weak snarl, unable to push through his exhaustion to physically convey all of the fury he felt, "If you or any other psycho in this shithole has put so much as a scratch on her, I swear to God every single one of you will be dead before you can see another sunset."

Jackal let out a sharp chuckle, "Oh, really? I'd like to see you try. With the way you look, I don't think you're going to be able to do much more than lay in that same spot for the rest of your life."

It was Gray's turn to huff out a laugh, albeit a weak one, "Who said it was me that was going to do the killing?" He let his lips quirk in the smallest of smirks when Jackal's expression froze up, obviously not expecting him to say such a thing. He let out another breathy chuckle before he hoarsely continued, "You've already done more than enough to make them angry, but when they see what you've done to me and Lucy, they'll completely destroy you."

"What do you mean _'they'_?" Jackal sneered.

"You've messed with the wrong people. It won't be long before they're here, and you'll realize how ignorant you were."

The blond man scoffed and brushed the threat off, but Gray could detect the subtlest traces of doubt in his expression. For a split second, Jackal wasn't as confident as he had always been, and that was more than enough for the raven haired boy to feel at least a bit satisfied that he'd managed to get under his captor's skin.

Jackal didn't say anything more, muttering another baseless threat beneath his breath before stalking down the hall.

Once his footsteps had faded into silence, Gray sucked in a deep breath and tried to get his head out of the fog it'd fallen into during his confrontation. He'd never threatened someone with death before. Well, he had mentioned murdering Natsu on numerous occasions, but it was certainly never something he actually meant. He'd never considered the fact that he might have to take a life someday, but over the time that he'd spent in his cell, quietly observing the people that held them captive, it'd become very obvious to him that the only way out of this place was to fight. And unlike his skirmishes with Natsu, this battle wouldn't end with a simple knock down. This would inevitably be a fight to the death.

He'd hunted animals all his life, constantly reminding himself that he was killing for the sake of those whom he considered family. Taking another human's life was an entirely different matter, but he had resolved to do it for Lucy and her child if it came down to it. However, like she'd said earlier, he would need a hell of a lot more than just willpower to get through this, and his body was absolutely drained.

Although he was loath to admit it, there wasn't much he could do. His only hope rested with his family.

' _Come on, everyone…you don't have much time. Please…don't let us down.'_

* * *

Natsu woke at the crack of dawn when he felt something wet and small continuously dragging across his face, spurring him into consciousness hours earlier than he usually would have woken up. He'd barely gotten any sleep, and the few hours he had were tormented with night terrors of what could be happening to his wife and best friend.

Happy had been his sole source of solace during the long, torturous night, and it was obvious to him that the cat was also downtrodden due to the lack of a certain blonde. He'd been curled up right next to Natsu's head the whole night, and sometimes the salmon haired man caught him with his eyes focused on the half of the bed that was empty.

Natsu scratched under Happy's chin as the cat continued to lick his face, a heavy breath escaping him as he thought over what was going to happen today.

It would be their first rescue mission ever, and they had absolutely no idea as to what they were going to face or how to really even go about the process. The aura of uncertainty was truly terrifying, but if he had to endure its weight for Lucy's and Gray's sakes, then he would do it a thousand times over.

He pushed himself up, rubbing the last traces of sleep from his eyes and slouching over to the dresser to change into his clothes. Excluding the previous night, it seemed like it'd been forever since he'd last been off of base. His responsibilities mainly concerned the generator considering the old thing was starting to give out after twenty years of sustaining them, and he'd inherited his father's expertise when it came to the workings of the mechanics of the place. Recently, he'd only ever left base to scavenge for replacement parts, and it had been years since he'd gone out for a decent hunt, one where he had actually returned with food.

This time off of base would be different though, and he'd come back with his objective. He would return victorious with both Lucy and Gray safely by his sides, he'd make sure of that.

As he prepared to leave his room, having changed into clothes that would keep him warm while simultaneously allowing him his full range of movement, he felt a small tug at the hem of his pants. He looked down to find Happy had sunk his teeth into the material, the cat almost looking upset that he had dared to leave without a goodbye.

Natsu crouched down to rub between his ears, doing his best to smile. His lips only quirked a small fraction, but his voice held all of the reassurance he could muster, and for both his sake and his cat's he muttered, "I'll bring her back, buddy. I'll bring them both back. I promise."

He left the door to his and Lucy's room open behind him, making sure the cat could slip out during the day if he wanted, which Happy normally did. He paused momentarily in passing Gray's room, taking a moment to strengthen his resolve before continuing on his way to the commons area of their bunker.

Despite the early hour, Laxus and Erza were already there, speaking in hushed tones as they checked over their supplies and debated over where they should begin their search. Gajeel had carved an X into the tree nearest the spot they'd found Gray and Lucy's belongings, but they had no indication as to what direction they should go from that point on.

"Morning, Natsu," Erza gave him her best attempt a smile when she caught sight of him approaching, but the dark circles under her eyes did little to aid her pursuit. She must have had endured a sleepless night as well.

"Mornin'," he rasped out somewhat unenthusiastically, coming to stand beside them and looking over all that they had gathered for their departure. He was desperate to help so that they could get out and start searching, but he was unsure of what he could do. He knew he was probably too anxious to be of much help, but he couldn't just do nothing either, not when his wife and best friend were still missing. "Anything I can do?"

Laxus briefly glanced at him before turning back to the quiver he was filling with arrows. They had no real desire to use their weapons to harm another group of humans, but the people they were up against obviously hadn't shown the same reserves when it came to Gray and Lucy. So they'd resolved to take their weapons with them, intent on doing everything it took to get their family back.

The blond set the quiver aside before moving onto another, "Juvia's already awake, too. She went out back. I told her I'd send someone out to get her when we were getting ready to leave."

"'Kay. I'll go," Natsu jumped on the opportunity Laxus had given him without a moment of hesitation, unable to stand still with his nerves on edge like they were. He immediately started off to find Juvia, knowing exactly what Laxus had meant when he said 'out back.' They rarely called the place by its appropriate name, the word too dreadful to be used in conversation as much as they had to talk about it.

He left the heavy metal door of their back entrance of sorts, or rather their emergency exit, open a fraction behind him so he and Juvia could get back in, making sure that it didn't latch before turning to look for the girl. He let out a small sigh when he spotted her, a cream colored beanie against the pure white of the snow that blanketed the ground between the scattered crosses. There were fifteen of them, and they'd left a bit of room around each, planning ahead so that when others died, they could be buried beside their lost loved ones. It was a depressing thought, but one that they had all eagerly gotten behind when they began to lose people on base.

He wasn't surprised when he saw what graves she was kneeling in front of. He'd been there for a majority of the burials, and he remembered watching as the bodies of the people he considered family were lowered into the ground, concealed by layers and layers of dirt. Due to that fact, he was incredibly familiar with which grave belonged to which deceased loved one. Their funerals were all horrid memories, but Lisanna's burial had been the hardest. He had been only nine years of age at the time, far too young to have already become familiar with death in the form of a friend's passing. She was one of the nine that had died in a matter of only a few weeks, their limited medical supplies not nearly enough to fight off the illness that had befallen them. Lucy's mother had fallen victim to the disease as well, her father losing himself to insanity not much later. Their burials still haunted him too, as did the others, the pain of watching as an eight year old Lucy dissolved into heart wrenching sobs combined with his fear that he'd lose his own parents and sweet little sister too marring for him to forget that day so easily.

The Heartfilia's graves were side by side, as were Gajeel's parents', both clusters left with a little room beside them for the children who would eventually pass away, too. Juvia was kneeling in front of the last pair of adjacent graves: Silver and Mika Fullbuster.

Natsu swallowed heavily as he lowered himself into the snow next to her, his head bowed respectfully as he quietly asked, "Did…did you get much sleep?"

He saw her shake her head in his peripherals, her gloved hands reverently clasped in her lap.

"Yeah…me neither." He gently cleared his throat, unsure of what to say. He was never the best when it came to providing comfort. That had always been Lucy's forte. "So…why'd you come out here?"

Juvia sniffled, her nose red from the cold, "I'm not really sure…It was just the only thing I could think of doing."

Natsu nodded softly, familiar with the feeling of not knowing what to do when faced with the gravity of their current situation. He supposed that maybe Juvia had come out here because she must feel some sort of connection with Silver and Mika given that they were Gray's parents, even if she had only ever known one of them. After all, Silver had been with Gray when the boy had stumbled upon her collapsed form in the snow one day during their hunt, and he'd become sort of a father figure to her whilst helping her cope with the grievances of her young life before she'd become a part of their family. He had helped her adjust to her new life on base too, and he had been the greatest instigator and supporter of her relationship with his son before his passing three years ago. He had been unable to fight off the infection that festered in a fatal chest wound he'd received from the antlers of a panicked and desperate buck during a hunt, and so he'd joined his wife in the afterlife.

Natsu clenched his fists and bowed his head when he recalled how Silver's passing had impacted Gray, how the emotional and psychological blow of the incident was so deep it was practically visible in every feature of his raven haired best friend. Most of the people on base that were his age had grown up without their parents, and there were even a few that were unfortunate enough to never have even known a single member of their biological families. Sometimes, he felt almost guilty for the fact that he still had both his parents. He'd certainly taken it for granted when he was younger. He'd never gone as far as wishing they weren't there or blatantly complaining about them in front of his friends who weren't as fortunate, but he definitely hadn't appreciated them and all they did for him as much he should have. Looking back on it, he realized Lucy had probably been a better child to them than he was.

Juvia had been one of the unfortunate ones, though he was sure that she had been with her parents before she had ended up in the snow that day. To his knowledge, she had never spoken about her biological family to anyone, but he had cause to believe that Gray knew more about the blue haired girl's past than he was letting on.

Natsu had never seen the need to pressure her, or any other of the lone survivors they'd found, into telling him. It didn't matter to him who she was before he'd known her, all that mattered to him was that she was a part of his family now, and because of that he'd watch out for her. Even if he did fully consider her family, he had never felt particularly close with Juvia, at least not any closer than he was with the majority of his family. But the fact that Gray and Lucy were the ones missing made them one in the same in this situation, and he understood her better in this moment than he ever had before.

He glanced over at her out of the corner of his eye, internal pain and confliction written across every feature of her face. He returned his gaze to the Fullbusters' graves, directing part of his promise at them as he declared, "We're going to bring Gray back, Juvia. Lucy too. I'm not resting until I know that they're safe."

The blue haired girl nodded her head, and although there were still traces of fear and doubt in her voice, there was an overwhelming amount of hope too, "I know, Natsu. There's not a doubt in my mind."

He did his best to muster one of his signature bright smiles, and although only a fraction of his usually lively grin made an appearance, she returned the gesture.

"Well…" he stood and wiped the snow that clung to his pants away before offering her his hand, "let's get going. Everyone's probably all gathered up inside, and…Gray and Lucy are waiting for us to find them."

* * *

Gray was dragged out of his half-sleep when the sounds of a struggle echoed down the hallway, growing louder with each second. He forced his eyes open even though they burned and begged to be remained shut, blinking rapidly to clear his fuzzy vision.

A man with pitch black hair suddenly flew around the corner, dragging a stumbling Lucy behind him. His hand was fisted in her hair, and the blonde let out tiny whimpers as she was yanked forward by her golden locks.

The raven haired boy tensed as soon as he caught sight of her, adrenaline rushing through his veins as his internal drive to protect his family appeared full force. And this time, he did manage to push himself up a small fraction, sloppily scrambling towards the bars on his hands and left leg as he desperately cried, "Lucy! Let go of her, you bastard!"

The man threw the blonde to the ground in front of the cell and crouched down next to her as he pulled something out of his pocket, not even sparing Gray a glance as the boy spat, "Don't touch her!"

He grabbed her left wrist out from under her, yanking her arm towards the bars and cuffing her to one of them before either of them could do a thing a about it. He stood and left without saying another word, giving the blonde one last audible sneer for good measure.

Gray was still angrily huffing, whipping towards the blonde as soon as the man's steps had faded away, "Lucy, are you okay?"

Her head hung low as she clutched at one of the bars of their cell with her cuffed hand to hold herself up, her chest heaving as she pulled the sleeves of his coat over the fingers of her free hand. She gently began to wipe away the blood that was still spilling from her nose, small whimpers escaping her throat as she dabbed at the sensitive area.

"Lucy? What happened with that man?" Gray persisted. She was still fully clothed, but he had to know if his worst fear had come true. "Did he…did he-"

She cut him off with a halfhearted, bitter laugh, finally raising her gaze to his, "You think I'd let him do anything like that to me?" Her eyes immediately widened as she took in his physical state, "Oh my god, what did he do to you, Gray?"

His lips pressed into a thin line when he saw how puffy and red her eyes were, his fury still blazing at full force despite having found out that at the very least, she hadn't been raped, "Don't bother. There's nothing you can do. Now tell me…what the hell happened? Your nose is obviously broken."

She took a second to suck in a few more breaths, her brain visibly reeling as she tried to calm down enough to put all that had happened into words. She gently wiped at her upper lip again as more blood dripped from her nose, her voice somewhat hoarse as she breathed out, "He…his name's Mard. At least, I think that's what the other guy called him. He was asking about where the rest of our group lived. He-" she paused to swallow as her voice snagged in her throat, "He…he seemed intent on setting out and killing them all…" She lowered her voice and leaned closer to him in case anyone else was listening in, "I don't think they realize that we've got almost thirty people though."

"How'd he know that we were living with others? That we weren't just on our own?"

The blonde bit her lip, her voice quiet as her gaze dropped to her left hand, "It…it was because of my ring. He saw that I had one and you didn't, so he wanted to know where my husband was if it wasn't you…" she bit her lip, "…I…I'm sorry, Gray. I told you I'd look out for myself, but I was stupid and let my anger get in the way. That's why he punched me."

For a moment, rage at what had been done to her flashed across his features, but Mard was long gone, and there was no way they were getting out of their cell anytime soon. Gray resolved to find the bastard as soon as they did though, then he'd return the favor tenfold.

He let out a heavy sigh as he reached up to rest his hand over hers as it gripped one of the bars of their cell, "He threatened our family and you came to their defense. You reacted just like any one of us would have if we were in the same situation, so you don't have to feel sorry."

"I…y-yeah…" She let out a small chuckle, a watery grin forming on her lips as shakily breathed out, "Natsu would have been proud, don't you think?"

Gray felt himself start to get choked up when tears began spilling down her cheeks. Normally her tears would have made him feel rage towards the cause, and although traces of fury were still pumping through his veins, he was overcome with another, greater emotion. Fear. Fear for both Lucy's well-being and his own.

That didn't stop him from trying to console her though, and he reached through the bars again, "Lucy-"

"I'm s-sorry…I-I told you I'd be strong, but…I just…I really thought that he might kill me for a second there. I w-was so scared…and- and then I-I thought about…about Natsu and…" She dissolved into sobs, unable to bring herself to say more. He couldn't bring himself to mutter any words of encouragement or pull her into his chest like he usually would. All he could do was reach through the bars and try to keep his own tears from falling for the sake of remaining strong for her.

But he didn't know how much longer he could keep it up.

* * *

By the time Natsu and Juvia had reentered the commons, the area was bustling with activity. His family members were loading their packs with various supplies and their preferred weapons, bundling themselves in their warmest clothes before giving their farewells to those that were staying behind.

Natsu was overcome with slight envy when he caught sight of Gajeel saying his goodbyes to Levy, the blue haired girl unable to join the group because she was still recovering from giving birth to twins not even a week before. The salmon haired man's lips quirked a small fraction when he recalled how Lucy and Levy had gushed over being pregnant at the same time, absolutely thrilled that their children would be able to grow up in the same manner that their parents had, with friends who would undoubtedly become like siblings as they lived and grew together. The idea that their children might even possibly marry in the future had excited the girls even further, both of their husbands blanching at the thought before they began bickering with another, their banter soon giving way to one of their common brawls.

Natsu was glad that Gajeel would be at his side during their rescue mission though. No matter how much they bickered, they had each other's backs, just like every other member of his family did.

The search and rescue group was composed of eleven people in total, a somewhat small, but fully capable mismatched group that was determined to bring back their missing family members. Laxus, Erza, and Gajeel had been the obvious choices when they were contemplating who to send, and Natsu and Juvia had understandably insisted on going as well. Mira, Elfman, Cana, Alzack, and Loke had been the final additions to the group, and everyone had felt confident enough in their decisions to leave their numbers at that.

But there was another who had insisted on coming, the sixteen year old arguing relentlessly with his father when the man had immediately protested the idea. But he'd eventually won the argument, or rather he'd refused to hear his father's rebuffs and firmly declared that no one would be able to stop him from going no matter what they tried.

And Romeo had proved himself on that notion, arriving in the commons fifteen minutes earlier than their planned time and fully equipped for their task.

Natsu gave the teen a quick smile when he caught his eye, and Romeo was quickly rushing towards him and away from Macao, who was shouting and chasing after his son as he tried to shove more things into the teen's backpack.

"Natsu! I'm ready to go!" Romeo let out a sound akin to choking when Macao snatched the end of the orange scarf around his neck, using it to drag him to a stop so he could finish packing his son's things.

He wanted to chuckle at their antics, remembering that he'd acted much the same with Igneel on numerous occasions when he was growing up, too excited and eager to get out and explore the world to worry about taking the necessary precautions. But he could only muster a small smile, because a precious part of his family was missing, and there'd be no joy until she was back by his side where she belonged.

In the corner of his eye, he caught sight of his parents and sister approaching him, having come to send him off. He could see it in their expressions and he knew that they felt it too, that their family wasn't really complete until Lucy was home.

Grandeeny was the first to step forward, and she gently grasped both of his forearms. Her eyes wandered up his form like they often did, obviously thinking about how much he'd grown, before she finally rested her gaze on his. She looked up at him with the upmost trust and faith in her eyes, but there was obvious worry in the depths of her irises, too. She moved one of her hands to rest on his cheek, pouring all of her mother affection into her touch, "Be careful out there, Natsu."

"Of course, Mom," he gave her a soft smile.

She gently pulled him into her arms, comfortingly grasping him tightly before pulling back and looking him over once more, again marveling over what a strong young man her little boy had grown into.

Igneel quickly entered the space his wife had formerly occupied, though his hug was much more firm, "You'll make us proud, son. I know it."

"Thanks, dad."

His father gave him one last strong pat on the back before he withdrew, one of his hands finding his son's shoulders and giving it a firm squeeze.

Natsu turned to his little sister, the last member of his family that he had to give his farewells to.

"You forgot this," Wendy lifted her hands and held his favorite white scarf out to him.

He huffed out a breath, partially out of gratitude and relief and partially out of frustration, berating himself for being so out of it that he left his favorite scarf behind. "Thanks, Wen." After he'd wrapped the scarf around his neck, his hands fell back to his sides and he returned his gaze to his sister's, "I'll be back soon."

She stepped closer and wrapped her arms around his waist, quietly breathing out, "Bring them home, Natsu."

He set his hand atop her head, "I will."

She stepped back and gave him a brief smile before her gaze shifted to the boy that had finally managed to make it to Natsu's side, "Be safe, Romeo."

He returned her warm smile, "Thanks, Wendy."

Their exchange had been simple enough, but Natsu chuckled to himself when he saw the faintest of blushes spread across both of their cheeks. He and Lucy had been the same way, blindly stumbling around their feelings like nervous and embarrassed wrecks before being more or less forced into admitting their feelings for each other by people who were sick of dealing with their avoidance and ignorance of the other's obvious affection, which was nearly every member of their family, though Gray and Erza had played an especially large part in the process.

He shared glances with each of his family members one more time before he turned to join the group that was gathering at the entrance of the tunnel, gaining strength from their warm smiles and faithful gazes.

He couldn't fail his task now. He'd made too many promises to fail, to both himself and his family.

The next time he saw this place, Lucy and Gray would be at his sides again, he'd make sure of it.

* * *

After taking a good look around at those that had gathered, Loke narrowed his eyes as he leaned towards Erza, "This many of us are going?"

The red head lightly shrugged, "I don't see why it should be any other way. It won't do us any harm to be over-prepared."

He wasn't so easily convinced, "It's just…Makarov never lets this many people off base at the same time. I know it's under special circumstances, but still…it's weird to be going out in a group so big."

Alzack, who was inspecting his bowstring short distance away, picked up on what Loke was getting at, his eyes travelling to the table that Bisca and Asuka sat at with Warren, "What if whoever attacked Gray and Lucy comes here while we're all gone?"

"You don't have to worry," Makarov cut in from his seated position atop a nearby table. "Gildarts and Igneel are staying behind. Freed and Bixlow, too. They're some of our strongest, and there's countless other people here that are fully capable of defending themselves. Don't forget that they'll only have to fight if whoever the attackers are somehow manage to get through the main door. I highly doubt there's any heavy artillery capable of such a feat left in this world."

The old man dropped out of the conversation after that, feeling like he had done a sufficient enough job at getting his point across. He instead turned his focus back to the others who were preparing to leave, traces of bitterness in his expression as he watched families and friends give their send offs.

With a shout from Laxus, the people before him split into two groups, those leaving and those staying behind. A few of the departing group waved over their shoulders as they began the long walk down the tunnel, their weapons ready and their minds set on bringing their lost family members home.

Makarov pressed his lips into a grim line as he watched the metal door of the bunker slam shut behind the boys and girls who had become like his own grandchildren. He had already been forced to send one son off to war, and Laxus' father had never returned from his draft, having been caught in one of the tens of nuclear blasts.

He had never imagined that he'd have to send someone off in such a manner again, but here he was, watching as not only one, but eleven of his grandchildren left to face what was most likely the greatest threat they had encountered thus far. And unlike with the nuclear war, he had absolutely no information upon which he could base his orders for them. Their numberless enemy would remain faceless and their tactics a complete mystery until the moment they were locked in battle, and he found it hard to prepare for them for the unknown, for the unknown was vast and utterly unpredictable.

However, unlike with Ivan, he had complete faith that his brats would return, two greater in number than when they had left. When he had first come to accept that these children might spend their entire lives in the bunker he had so diligently prepared, he was regretful to be the one that confined them to such an existence, one where they would get only glimpses of what the outside world had to offer.

But somewhat contrary to what he had expected, it was in his bunker that they had found their greatest strength: each other. He had full confidence in every single one of them, and he knew without a doubt that they would fight until the edge of the world for their comrades, willingly plunging beyond the bunker, the only home they had ever known, and into the uncertainty of the vast world that lay before them if it was what they had to do to ensure their family's safety.

They had chosen the right hands to place their faith in, and he knew that Lucy and Gray would be back home soon.

* * *

For once, Gray wasn't unconscious or lying completely exhausted on the floor of the cell when Jackal and Mard returned, along with another man that looked like death himself. And the raven haired boy took advantage of the opportunity, steeling himself for whatever was to come by scooting as close to Lucy as he could, both of his hands grasping the bars and ready to reach beyond them if the need arose.

And the blonde acted similarly, turning her back to him and pressing it into the bars to get herself as far away as possible from the three men. She pulled her knees into her chest, partially to create some sort of barrier between her swollen stomach and them and partially to prepare herself for lashing out with her feet at a moment's notice.

They both knew that their actions were only a momentary front against an enemy that clearly held the advantage. With Gray nearly beaten to the brink and trapped behind bars and Lucy cuffed and vulnerable in her pregnant state, they were both fully aware that there was no way to overcome this threat on their own. It was a terrible feeling, to have to fight a battle that they knew would be their loss.

Jackal was the one to step closer, while Mard leaned against the nearby metal table. The other man stayed back, his pale face the only part of his body that was distinguishable from the shadows of the hallway.

Lucy pressed herself further into the bars as the canine-like man crouched in front of her, his horrifying grin contorting his face once again, "Its playtime, blondie."

He dove forward and wrapped each of his hands around one of her ankles, dragging them out from supporting her and attempting to lengthen her body across the floor. At the same time, Gray's arms shot through the bars on either side of her head and wrapped around her shoulders, his hands fisting in the material of the coat and desperately fighting to keep her close.

Lucy used what ab strength she had left to try and keep her knees bent into her chest, her legs exhaustedly but desperately kicking against Jackal's firm grasp.

But he was too strong. Even if there were two of them, they were far too weak in their current state to have had a chance at overpowering him.

With one quick, sharp tug, the blonde's small frame slipped through Gray's arms, her head painfully smacking against the metals bars and then concrete when she suddenly found herself spread across the floor beneath Jackal.

He straddled the blonde, crushing her right hand to the floor with his own. Her left arm remained stretched above her head, her hand still cuffed to the bars of the cell. When Mard stepped forward with the key to her restraints, Gray reached through the bars again, both of his hands desperately wrapping around the blonde's wrist and his ice cold gaze daring the man to try and take Lucy further away from him.

He froze when the girl let out a whimper through clenched teeth, his eyes widening as his focus slid back to her and the man pinning her to the floor. Jackal had a knife to her throat, the sharp blade already slicing the very surface of her skin and sending blood sliding down her neck and into her hair.

Jackal chuckled when he saw the terror in Gray's wide gaze, "If you don't want blondie to get hurt, you're gonna do everything we say and tell us what we want to know."

Mard glared down at the raven haired boy, his voice unnervingly even as he threatened, "Unless you want her to lose it, let go of her wrist."

Gray dropped his gaze to the floor, his hands trembling as he gave her one last attempt at a reassuring squeeze before he withdrew his grasp.

Once the cuff was off, Jackal dragged Lucy a few feet away from the bars, his knife held to her throat all the while.

Gray's heart was pounding away anxiously in his chest as he watched on, the canine-like man resuming his kneeling stance over her small frame once he was satisfied with the distance between her and her comrade. One of her hands was pinned to the floor by Jackal's own, the other crushed by one of his knees.

For the second time, Lucy had been torn away from Gray, dragged to a place he couldn't reach, and he lamented over the promise to her husband that he had allowed to be broken.

Mard didn't hesitate to set out on fulfilling his intentions once a good distance had been put between his captives, immediately turning back to the boy in the cell as he ground out, "Where's the rest of your group?"

Gray was silent for a moment. Even though Lucy had told him about their motives, it was still somewhat hard for him to believe that these people would so willingly and confidentially set out to murder an entire group of people with the intent of making a meal of them. It was absolutely sickening, and again, he couldn't help but momentarily grieve over the fact that he and Lucy had fallen victim to such a horrid ensemble of cannibals.

But before he could think much more about his answer, whether he would refuse or to give them the information wanted for Lucy's sake, the blonde decided to stop being silent.

Her teeth were clenched as she boldly spat, "We'd never sell out our friends like that!"

Jackal chuckled down at her, "You've still got the confidence to snap at us when you can't do anything to fight back?" The corners of his mouth spread in a wicked sneer, the tip of his tongue swiping across his lips, "I know exactly what'll take that fire away,"

When their threats turned to reality and Jackal made to rid her of her clothing, Gray couldn't hold back the shouts that burst from his mouth, "Don't touch her!"

Lucy fought like hell against Jackal as his hands moved to strip her, helplessly failing her arms and legs in fruitless attempt at preventing him from doing the thing she feared most. He growled when he got fed up with her thrashing, and his fist came down upon her just like it had during their first skirmish in the snow, mercilessly slamming against her temple thrice and nearly knocking her unconscious.

Gray desperately grasped onto the bars, "Stop it!"

Mard simply huffed out an annoyed breath as the blonde's arms fell to floor, small mumbles escaping her lips as her head lulled to the side, obviously disoriented from the blows.

The man that remained in the shadows of the hallway said nothing, his sunken-in eyes lazily observing the scene before him as he leaned back against the wall a short distance away from the commotion.

As his coat was torn from around her, Gray caught sight the bruises that littered Lucy's throat.

When the blonde had talked about how she thought Mard was going to kill her earlier, he hadn't thought that the man had actually tried. But the horrid purple and yellow ring around her throat made it obvious that she had been strangled, and both his rage and terror grew to new heights as he realized how close she had come to losing her life.

It wasn't long before Natsu's red and black flannel was ripped from her frame as well, the thin material momentarily blocking the blonde from Gray's sight before fluttering to the ground directly in front of his cell.

Her teeth immediately started chattering, her thin black undershirt, sweat pants, and socks the only barriers between her and the frigid air of their eternal winter. It didn't help that the bare skin of her arms was pressed against the chilled concrete as Jackal straddled her and pinned her in place.

The canine-like man cruelly chuckled again, his eyes raking over her bare skin before he turned his crazed gaze to Gray, "She's got very nice skin. Unless you want watch me cover it in scars, I suggest you start talking." As he spoke, he dragged the tip of his knife across the blonde's chest, a line of blood marring her pale skin from just above her right collar bone to the top of her left breast.

Gray tightened his death grip on the bars at the weak shriek that slipped through the blonde's clenched teeth as her flesh was carved, his knuckles turning white as he ground out, "I have no idea where we are. I couldn't tell you how to get my base even if I wanted to!" His voice dropped off in volume, barely audible as he choked out, "So please…stop hurting her."

Lucy had pulled herself out of her daze by then, the stinging pain on her chest, the cold of the floor, and the crushing weight of Jackal's knee on her hand, the same hand that Mard had nearly broken earlier, were too much for her senses remain numb for long.

Her throat tightened when she heard how weak Gray's voice had become as he begged for her safety. She'd never heard him sound so desperate and helpless…and she absolutely hated it. These people were to blame, and she knew that even if they gave in to Gray's plead, her relief would only momentary. They'd do far worse things to both of them later, Jackal had assured her of that.

But she couldn't let that happen. She wasn't going to let these men use her to get to Gray while there was something she could have done, even if she knew Gray would most definitely disagree with what she was about to do.

Jackal's left forearm was in range, directly to the right of her head as he pinned her wrist to the floor. She turned her head and sank her teeth in to his flesh without a moment of hesitation as soon as the idea came to mind, and her attack had its desired effect. He ripped his arm away, probably worsening the damage done to his flesh, but she didn't give a damn about how much she'd hurt him, her now free right hand swinging to knock the knife out of his grasp. The blade sliced in a shallow cut across part of her palm in the process, but it was soon clattering to the floor, skidding across the ground and underneath one of the cabinets that lined the walls.

Jackal stumbled from his stance over her as he clutched at the wound she'd given him, pulling back and falling to the side.

But Lucy's sense of victory was short-lived, her fleeting moment of triumph collapsing back into crushing fear as Mard suddenly appeared above her with another, larger knife, not giving her another chance to attack as he plunged it into her right shoulder.

This time, she couldn't stop the scream that burst from her lips at the pain.

"LUCY!"

Mard withdrew the knife as quickly as he had stabbed it in, the blonde curling onto her side after it had been mercilessly yanked out of her flesh.

Gray's eyes widened as Lucy shrieked through clenched teeth, her arms desperately wrapping around herself as she trembled in agony. But her hands weren't on the wound she had just received, they were pressed against her swollen stomach.

Something was wrong.

Jackal suddenly snatched the knife from Mard's grip, mercilessly grabbing the blonde by her injured shoulder and pushing her onto her stomach before straddling her hips once more. His free hand fisted in her hair, yanking her head backwards and leaning down next to her ear as he ground out, "You'll pay for that one, bitch."

The knife came down again, this time aiming for the space just beside her head, where her right hand was splayed across the floor. Another horrid shriek, this one louder and more blood curdling than the last, tore from her throat as her pinky and ring fingers were severed from her hand.

"STOP!" Gray's desperate cry bounced off of the concrete walls of the small room, his voice choked as he gave in, "I'll tell you! Please…don't hurt Lucy anymore."

With a commanding glance from Mard, Jackal reluctantly let Lucy's golden locks slip through his fingers as he let out an annoyed scoff, her head knocking against the ground again. She kept whimpering to herself as her hand became slick with her own blood, only vaguely aware of the conversation that was taking place around her.

Gray dropped his gaze to floor, desperately praying that his family was prepared for the storm that was coming as he breathed out, "Our home…it's at the base of a mountain, a little less than a mile and a half directly north from the northernmost shore of Lake Scilliora."

These people probably thought that the was helping them, but instead he was sending them to their doom, straight into the hands of his family, who would surely wreak havoc on them for all that they had done. He didn't know what exactly these psychopaths were planning on doing once they got to his base or how they planned on taking them all out, but he knew that they there was no way they were prepared for a battle against his family. They were too confident, and he'd learned early on that overconfidence could be someone's worst enemy.

He could have lied and sent them off in the wrong direction entirely, but he knew that their family's aid was the only way for him and Lucy to have even a slight chance at making it out of this alive. He figured if he sent their enemies right to them, they'd at least have some hope of being found and rescued, fully confident that his family would gain victory over these psychopaths.

Mard smirked as he heard the information, exchanging quick glances with Jackal and the other man in turn, "Perfect. They're close."

Gray's hope increased tenfold upon hearing that phrase. If his family was close, that meant he actually had a chance at being saved from this horrid place before he was overcome by his wounds. Now that he thought about it, he probably should have realized sooner that they weren't far from where he called home. They had been given fish to eat after all, and the only water reservoir for miles around their base was Lake Scilliora.

"See?"

The raven haired boy was drawn out of his inner declaration of victory when Mard's chilling voice sounded out, the man's focus sliding down to the blonde who was still pinned beneath Jackal, the two stubs of what had once been her ring and pinky fingers still spilling blood onto the frigid floor.

"I told you that love makes you weak. He can't bear to hear you scream."

Lucy clenched her teeth to stop herself from whimpering as another surge of pain shot through her body, originating from just above her pelvis. The pulsing agony in her fingers added to her tumultuous pain, her head reeling as she resisted the pull of unconsciousness. She couldn't pass out now, not when the enemy was literally on top of her.

She fought to get her voice to work, refusing to give in and let Mard believe he had won over her.

But Gray beat her to the chase, his eyes blazing with rage as he ground out, "You're wrong…you'll realize that when you find our people. Love doesn't make you weak, it makes you stronger. Once they see what you've done, you'll regret ever messing with us."

Mard lifted a brow at his boldness, "You're in no position to be making threats." The corners of his lips quirked slightly in amusement, "And if the rest of your bunch is anything like the two of you, they'll be easy to take out."

Jackal didn't give Gray another chance to defend his family or make any more jibes, a sickening lilt of anticipation in his voice as he raked his eyes over the girl he was pinning to the floor, "Well, now that you've gotten what you wanted Mard…can I get what I want?"

His intentions immediately drew a panicked protest from Gray, "You said you'd leave her alone!"

Jackal let out a hearty, chilling chuckle, "You have nothing more that we want, so there's really no point in holding myself back any longer."

Lucy took advantage of her limb's freedom while she had it, once again forcing herself out of her cloud of pain and blindly lashing out with her right hand as soon as he flipped her over onto her back. Hurting him had only brought her dire consequences in the past, but she didn't have time to think about the repercussions of her actions. Her only focus was fighting back against him and stopping him from fulfilling his crude desires.

A vicious growl escaped his throat as he easily caught her wrist, crushing it in a bruising grip as he spat, "That's the second time you've scratched at me like that. Maybe I should just cut that pretty little hand of yours _off_." A disgusting smirk spread across his lips as he dragged his gaze from her hand up to her shoulder, "We've been waiting for a good meal anyways, so I might as well just take the whole arm."

Time seemed to slow to a stop for Gray as he watched Jackal pull an exhaustedly thrashing Lucy from the floor by the front of her shirt, Mard stepping out of the way as the canine-like man aimed to spread her across the metal table.

He'd already failed Natsu on their promise. Lucy was far from unharmed, and the raven haired boy blamed himself for every drop of blood that she'd lost.

But he knew that losing her arm would do the blonde in for sure, and so he saw only one option as for what he should do next. He hadn't been able to protect her before, but he'd be damned if he let her die when he could have done something to save her.

"STOP!" He swallowed heavily, not an ounce of regret or hesitation in his voice as he pleaded, "Take mine instead! Just…leave Lucy alone."

Lucy's eyes widened as her head lulled in his direction, "G-Gray…no-"

She shrieked as Jackal suddenly dumped her on the floor, landing stomach down and barely managing to catch herself with her hand that was slick with the blood of losing two of her fingers.

Jackal boisterously cackled, a sinister and sadistic grin contorting his features, "Really? You'd give your own arm for her?" He let out another sharp, maddening chuckle, "Mard was right. Love is your weakness. It's pathetic," his lips spread in a wicked smirk, "But I'll accept."

Lucy fought against her blinding pain, scrambling to push herself up, "NO! Don't-"

The man that hadn't said word nor contributed to her torture in any way suddenly emerged from the shadows of the hallway, his boot pitilessly slamming down on her upper back and pinning her in place.

A cruel grin overtook Jackal's features as he approached the raven haired boy, "I'd much rather it be you anyways. I want to keep blondie around for a long, long time."

Everything happened too fast. Jackal flew into the cell, dragging Gray's drained body across the frigid floor and out into the small room just beyond the bars. Mard joined his acquaintance, and together they hoisted him up onto the table, the black haired man taking a hold of Gray's right wrist and pinning away from his body. Jackal grasped his shoulder with his left hand, the right raising above his head with the knife that was still coated in Lucy's blood in his grasp.

What hurt the blonde the most was that Gray didn't fight back. Not a single kick or a scream. His eyes never left hers, something akin to an apology in his gaze as he was dragged towards his grim fate. Tears began streaming down her face when he gave her his best attempt at a final, reassuring smile before his eyes squeezed shut as Jackal made his move.

Lucy's shriek of horror chorused with Gray's agonized scream as the knife came down, hacking away at his arm again and again before the limb was finally severed, splattering blood across Lucy's face as it fell to the floor.

* * *

 **AN**

 **Well, there's another chapter! There's only one left to go after this!**

 **Now, a little bit about why I wrote what I did:**

 **-About the part with Gray praying: I'm a very religious person myself, and Gray's silver cross necklace was something that really struck me when I first got into Fairy Tail. It kind of bugged me that they never acknowledged it (at least from what I can remember) when its such an obvious reference to Christianity, as is the presence of cathedrals in the story, but I can also understand why since religion can be a sensitive topic for some people. But with that being said, since this is my own fic and I'm already discussing other sensitive topics I had no qualms about putting that scene in here. Also, I feel that I should mention that my version of Gray and Lucy in this fic are heavily inspired by my relationship and interactions with my older brother, who is of the same faith as I am, which further drove me to add that scene.**

 **That's really all I have to talk about for now, but if you have any other questions to ask me about my process, feel free to ask!**

 **Anyways, thanks for reading! :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**As always, same warnings apply as in the previous chapters**

 **Thanks for joining me on this short ride, and I'm terribly sorry for the ungodly amount of time it took me to finish this thing. Regardless, I hope it was all worth it!**

 **Enjoy the final chapter of Winter's Blight!**

* * *

Just like the blood that spilled from Gray's shoulder, Lucy's tears wouldn't stop.

She was completely free. They'd left her unchained and out her cell, but she couldn't bring herself to move so much as an inch from her current position. The physical pain alone made the task of movement incredibly strenuous, but the emotional agony was absolutely crushing, continuously piling itself heavier and heavier upon her chest and keeping her on the ground, sobbing over Gray's unconscious form. The fact that he had lost his arm was already dreadful enough, but the fact that he had sacrificed it for _her_ was what kept her from taking advantage of her freedom and finding a means of escape.

She'd taken Gray's coat from where Jackal had tossed it after he'd stripped it from her frame earlier, her blood-splattered hands trembling as she did her best to tie it around his shoulders in an attempt to staunch the flow of blood. But the crimson liquid was already beginning to soak the puffy material, her terror only growing as one of her best friends continued to bleed out right before her eyes despite her efforts.

The blonde shrieked through clenched teeth and more tears were forced from her eyes when she squeezed them shut as her body was assaulted by another wave of agony that rippled outwards from just above her pelvis. Subconsciously being mindful of her broken nose, she buried her forehead in Gray's left shoulder, the one with an arm still attached, and dug the fingers she still had into the fabric of his sweater, fighting a losing battle to endure the agony.

She didn't want to acknowledge the pain. She didn't want to admit to herself what was happening.

Mard and the others were gone. The leader had torn at her hair one last time after they'd finished their gruesome amputation, spitting in her face about how the only thing love was good for was bringing forth people's weaknesses. They had dumped Gray's limp body on the floor before disappearing into the shadows of the hallway with the raven haired boy's arm, chilling whispers of their plans of attack passing between them as they slipped into the endless black that lay beyond the light of the single candle on top of the cabinet.

She knew that by now, they had left to find her family, to hunt them down and to make a feast of their flesh.

No matter how much Mard and his underlings terrified her, she wasn't worried for her family. They had survived, and even _thrived_ , for twenty years in a world that wasn't meant to sustain life. They had persevered and prospered while their society was torn out of existence by war and chaos, their will to live on and make something of themselves too great to be overcome by the hell that had consumed the rest of the world.

They were strong. Stronger than these psychopaths could ever hope to be. She had full confidence in them, and she knew that they would be here soon to take her and Gray back home.

However, the chances of them arriving to find Gray's body void of any life were growing greater by the second. His blood continued to spill from his shoulder, staining his coat a disgusting scarlet.

Lucy buried her head further into his chest as another sob escaped her throat at that thought. She couldn't lose him. Not yet. Not until both of them had turned silver with age.

"Would you stop your blubbering already? It's making me nauseous."

Lucy's breath caught in her throat and her eyes widened in fear, prickling chills ricocheting up and down her spine as her whole body tensed at the unsettling voice that called from the shadows just behind her.

She had thought her captors had all set out on their hunt. She had thought she and Gray were the only ones left in this horrid, frigid building.

But that chilling voice proved her wrong, and it was one that had plagued her thoughts ever since she and Gray were first attacked.

Jackal.

He was still here, and she was dreadfully aware that the time had arrived, that he'd come to follow through with all of the horrendous threats he'd made previous.

She heard movement, and she didn't have to look to know he was crouching down right behind her, the prickling shivers on the back of her neck and spine letting her know he was close.

More than anything, she wanted to run, to fight back and prove to this psycho that he hadn't managed to get the best of her. But she couldn't move, her fear and dread far too paralyzing to be overcome by the minuscule amount of will she had left after watching a friend who was like her older brother sacrifice his arm for her.

Her skin bristled when she felt Jackal's hand clamp around her shoulder, the same shoulder that'd been pierced by Mard's blade earlier. He made to pull her backwards, to separate her from her comrade one last time and finally fulfill his lust.

In a final, hopeless effort to escape her fate, Lucy desperately dove forward, wrapping her arms around Gray's neck as she screamed and sobbed against his skin. She yearned for him to wake up, to desperately fight to protect her from the nightmares that threatened to consume her like he always had. Then, she would know that he was okay, that he hadn't died for her sake.

Her grasp on him faltered as Jackal yanked her towards him with more strength, her breath knocking from her lungs as her back and head crashed against the hard floor. Jackal didn't give her a single second to recover, straddling her waist once more and pinning her hands away from her body.

She'd been in this position far too many times, and if her past experiences were anything to go by, there was no escaping his hold. She hadn't been able to do it before, not even once, and with the strength she had left, she didn't have any hope of getting out of it this time.

"Now that Mard's gone, I can do whatever I'd like with you," he raked his gaze over her trembling body, his twisted smirk making it obvious to her that he was relishing in the sight of her sobbing form. His voice held a disgusting lilt of anticipation as he leaned down to run his tongue over her cheekbone, lapping at her tears, "You don't have to cry, blondie. I'll make you feel _real_ good soon."

Her stomach churned, a sob tearing from her throat as he stole a hungered kiss from her lips, his mouth smashing against hers hard enough to bruise. He pulled back a fraction, still sucking of her bottom lip for a moment before sinking his teeth into her flesh and making it bleed.

Lucy's mind was suddenly was consumed with thoughts of Natsu, and it pained her to think of him when another man was atop her, prepping to ravish her. Although the images of salmon hair and a bright grin momentarily distracted her from her assaulter's ministrations, she tried to force her husband from her mind, a horrid combination of guilt and anguish crushing down upon her at the though of him because even after she had given the fight against her captors everything she had, it still wasn't enough.

A whimper tumbled from her lips as the man mounting her ran his tongue over her cheeks again before licking along her jawline, groaning to himself in delight at the taste of her skin.

Her innermost self _screamed_ at her to fight back, to live up to her reputation as the girl who never gave up hope, no matter how dire the situation was.

But Jackal was too strong, and _everything_ that had happened, from allowing herself to be captured in the first place to Mard strangling her to Jackal running his blade through her flesh to Gray sacrificing his arm for her…all of it had torn away at that brave, unyielding girl she had prided herself to be, a little more of her eroding away with every blow that came her way. What was left of her was buried underneath a new side of herself that she didn't recognize, a side that was too consumed by fear to do something, _anything_ to save herself.

She turned her head to the left in a hopeless attempt at pulling herself further away from Jackal as he licked down her throat, and she whimpered as his tongue ran over the abused ring of flesh Mard had left behind. He settled for a spot just beneath the circle of bruises, smirking against her skin as he rasped out, "Time to return the favor."

He sunk his teeth into the junction of her throat and right shoulder, her eyes squeezing shut as an agonized scream ripped from her throat and echoed between the concrete walls.

The candle flickered, the flame reflecting in the silver sheen of something in the space under the cabinet just to her left.

It was the knife, the one she had knocked from Jackal's grasp earlier, right after he had sliced its tip across her chest. She momentarily went numb to his ministrations when she caught sight of it through her teary-eyed gaze, the only thought on her mind becoming ' _get the goddamn knife.'_

As if by some divine power, her left wrist was suddenly free from Jackal's grasp. He had moved his right hand to her hip, his palm slowly diving beneath the hem of her shirt and sliding upwards.

She stretched her left arm out, her fingertips barely brushing against the handle as she grappled for the knife and tried to use her fingers to scoot it closer. She mentally thanked God that the blade rested on her left side and not her right, knowing that if such was the case she wouldn't have had even a slight chance of getting the knife in her grasp, her fingers too slick due to the blood that had spilled across her right hand from the stumps of her pinky and ring fingers.

The blonde clenched her teeth together, refusing to let another sob slip from her lips as his tongue moved lower on her body, lapping the blood from the wound on her chest and even dipping the tip of his tongue into her sliced flesh. His right hand was getting dangerously closer to her breast, lingering at the bottom of her rib cage for a moment and tracing circles over the skin there as if to taunt her and invoke more fear of what was to come.

And finally, her fingers were wrapping around the handle.

She didn't hesitate for a single second, a harrowing shriek shredding her throat as she withdrew her hand from beneath the cabinet and stabbed the blade into the side of Jackal's throat.

His lips froze on her skin, his body jerking as it was invaded by the sharp, foreign object. He pulled away from her slowly, moving like molasses. His eyes were wide as they connected with hers, a horrid sound akin to choking spluttering from his lips as he mindlessly reached for the blade embedded in his neck. His disbelieving eyes never left hers as he yanked it out, sealing his fate as blood now freely flowed from the wound.

He held her gaze even as the scarlet stained knife clattered to the floor, a horrifying chill skittering down her spine as she watched the life fade from his eyes.

After a few moments, his body went limp on top of hers, his blood spilling onto her black shirt and coating her skin in a haunting coat of red.

She desperately shoved his limp and heavy form off, pushing herself up and hurriedly scooting backwards as his blood continued to spill from his neck. Her shoulder bumped into the cabinet as she furiously kicked against the floor in a frenzied scramble to get away from his body, the candle tipping from its stick and falling from its perch. Her eyes widened as it hurdled towards the floor, the flame catching the cuff of Jackal's sleeve. The material instantly caught fire, and the flame continued to slowly spread across his frame.

As his corpse was unintentionally set ablaze right before her eyes, she took a moment to process all that had just happened, tears silently slipping down her face without her realizing.

She had just taken a life, but she didn't feel an ounce of regret. Though, she wasn't sure that she felt anything at all. It was as if something within her had snapped the second she had set her gaze upon the knife, the disconnect widening as she drove the blade into his throat.

Her survival instincts had completely taken over her senses, her morals and all other values tossed aside as her will to live on took total control of her actions.

And those instincts were still running at full force. The ache in her pelvis had ceased, or rather she had become numb to it, as one final burst of adrenaline rushed through her veins, a new thought dominating her mind, ' _take Gray and get the hell out of this place.'_

* * *

Natsu glanced around at his comrades, taking note of how tensed Gajeel and Laxus were. He could tell they felt the same ominous feeling he did, that something big was going to happen soon.

When they had arrived at the place where Gray and Lucy had disappeared, they had thought about their next advance logically, concluding that whoever had taken them must have set up base near Lake Scilliora. With nearly all plant life dissolving into decay and the surrounding forest nearly void of any game, the lake was the only natural source of food for miles and miles around.

The frozen lake was now on their right, though they moved through the cover of the trees just off of the shore, wise enough not to put themselves out in the open now that they knew the risk of an attack was very real after what had happened to Gray and Lucy.

Natsu couldn't shake the feeling that they were already too late, that something horrendous had befallen his wife and best friend in the mere twenty four hours they'd been missing. He had never been one to lose hope, and he knew better than anyone that Lucy and Gray were both the type of people to fight till their very last breath. But blood had already been spilt, its sickening crimson hue staining the snow only a short distance away from their abandoned belongings when Gajeel had stumbled upon the items in the woods. He feared that that blood was only the first of much more to be spilt, his mind running wild with the terrifying possibilities of what had become of the rest of humanity, specifically the people who had taken his wife and best friend.

Laxus suddenly froze, his hand flying up in a signal to halt the rest of the group. Natsu followed the blond's sharp gaze, his entire frame tensing when he caught sight of what had drawn Laxus' attention.

There were six of them in total, confidently heading north along the shore of the lake without any indication that they were aware of the eleven pairs of eyes watching their every move from within the woods.

The man at the head of the group had dark hair that still fell past his shoulders even though it was tied up in a ponytail, his gaze his firmly set before him and a faint hint of a smirk quirking his lips. It was obvious to Natsu that he was their leader, not only because of his place at the head of group but because of his posture, his broad shoulders assertive and commanding, his sharp gaze merciless and cruel.

To the leader's right was a man so pale and thin Natsu was sure he could pass for a corpse, his skin pulled tight over his bones and his black eyes seeming to sink back into his skull. Behind him were two more men, one with shaggy, light blonde hair and the other with only one eye, his other socket a white and pink mess of scar tissue. The last member of their company was fear-invoking upon just a single glance, a hulking brute of a man comparable in size with Elfman who towered over the rest.

The group's demeanor was more than enough for the men and women amongst the trees to know to the truth, that these were the people who had attacked and taken their family.

As the distance between the two groups lessened, Laxus angled his head over his shoulder, hurriedly assessing their enemies and hissing out commands before their opponents came close enough to catch sight of them amongst the trees, "Everyone be on guard. Alzack, Mira, get up in the trees. We'll let them make the first move, but don't hesitate to shoot once the fight's started. The same goes for the rest of you. Focus on defending yourselves until you figure out their weak points. Then attack with everything you have."

Given that they had never been faced with such a daunting trial before, Natsu was a bit surprised at the dexterity and certainty with which Laxus gave his commands. Though, he supposed he should have expected nothing less from the grandson and son of two men who had devoted a significant portion of their lives to war. Not to mention that Laxus was one of the few on base who had been born before society crumbled, and even though he had only been a small child, he'd been forced to learn how to survive and strategize in order to combat with what had become of the war-torn world before he had been taken to safety by his grandfather.

The salmon haired man was drawn out of his state of slight awe and admiration when Laxus turned to him, "Natsu, as soon as you see an opening, take Juvia, Cana, and the kid and head south. They don't have Gray and Lucy with 'em, which means they're probably still back at their base. We don't know how many others might be there, so don't attack unless you're sure you can handle it. Otherwise, wait for us. We'll follow you as soon as we're done here."

Natsu gave him a small nod, internally grateful that Laxus was giving him permission to abandon the fight and continue forward. No matter how much he wanted to pound these freaks into the ground for attacking and taking his family members, his priority was Lucy and Gray's safety, and more than anything else, he wanted to know that they were okay, that the foreboding, suffocating feeling of dread in his chest was wrong.

He watched on as his family moved as silently as possible to obey Laxus' commands, their eyes never leaving the enemy. Alzack and Mira took to the trees, climbing the trunks and settling behind the partial cover of the snow-blanketed branches before prepping their bows. Erza withdrew her katana from its sheath at her hip, coming to stand between Laxus and Gajeel as the black haired man pulled his steel bat from his backpack before dropping the bag at the base of a nearby tree. Loke and Elfman stepped forward to join the line the three had created, while Juvia, Romeo, and Cana moved to stand behind Natsu in preparation to follow his lead. A flash of silver in the corner of the salmon haired man's eyes let him know that Cana had her throwing knives at the ready. Laxus himself adorned a pair of brass knuckles, briefly and grimly noting that at least this situation had finally given him a reason to make use of them.

They'd all been trained in hand-to-hand combat to a certain extent, though it was more out of curiosity and desire rather than the necessity for such a skillset, even if the idea had first come about upon Makarov's suggestion that they learn to defend themselves in case raiders or any other sort of threat happened upon their base. Their life in the bunker left them with a lot of time to spare anyways, so they had seen fit to dedicate a portion of the time that wasn't spent hunting and making repairs to learning about self-defense from those who had a bit of experience with the matter, namely Gildarts and Igneel. The kids had often made a sport of it too, Natsu and Gray in particular, using their new skills to challenge one another and prove themselves better than the rest. Some had taken it a step further than the others and trained themselves in the use of handheld weapons to aid in their defense, Erza growing particularly attached to an old katana Makarov had scavenged while Cana developed an affinity for smaller knives, specifically those meant for throwing.

Laxus was the first to emerge from the forest and step onto the shore, the five who had been picked to fight alongside him on the ground cautiously following his lead. Natsu stayed amongst the cover of the trees with his group, deciding it'd be best to make their escape from the inevitable battle as quickly as possible without having to charge straight through the enemy.

If the black haired man at the head of the approaching company felt any surprise at their sudden appearance, he certainly didn't show it, his expression unchanging as he simply raised his hand to bring his men to a halt behind him.

They hadn't caught sight of Mira and Alzack in the trees, or at least they gave no indication that they had. It meant that their side had the advantage, at least for the moment.

A breathy and barely audible chuckle escaped the leader's lips, amusement dancing in his dark gaze as he looked them over, "My, look at you all. We're only out on a simple hunt. I see no reason why you should approach us with your weapons poised to kill."

Erza took the liberty of responding, her voice firm to let the man know they weren't in the mood to entertain his joking manner, "We're looking for our comrades. They went missing yesterday."

Contrary to what Natsu had expected, the man's eyes seemed to only light up more at the information Erza had given him, "Ah, how fortunate." He turned to speak over his shoulder at the men who accompanied him, "Who would have thought that our prey would come to us?"

Light, but cruel laughter filled the air around the group.

"'Prey?'" Gajeel repeated, his grip on his steel bat tightening and his eyes narrowing at the implications of such a term.

"Yes," Mard affirmed. "It appears that we have both found what we were looking for."

Laxus took a step forward, "What do you mean?"

The man's lips twisted in a cruel smirk, "My name is Mard Geer, and I come baring a gift, the very thing you've been searching for." He reached into the pocket of his long black coat, withdrawing his hand and holding his palm out for all of them to see.

The item within his grasp made Natsu's blood run cold.

It was a thin, but long bundle of bloodied, golden hair. There were only a few strands that fluttered and tangled in the light breeze, but they were more than enough in number for Natsu to recognize them.

He'd memorized every highlight and undertone of those blonde locks, having run his fingers through them countless times, both in innocence when Erza had unsuccessfully attempted to teach him how to braid when they were kids and in passion when he and his wife consummated their marriage on the night of their wedding and many nights since that day.

Those golden strands were meant to glow and shimmer in the light, but now they were tainted, unmistakably splattered by a few drops of crimson blood.

All thoughts of continuing on towards their base disappeared from Natsu's mind upon seeing the 'gift,' and suddenly all that mattered to him was getting revenge by turning whoever dared to touch a single hair on Lucy's head into a pile of ashes. A sound akin to a growl escaped his lips as he stepped out from the cover of the trees, ready to charge the man and bury his fist in his face, "You bastard!"

Laxus halted his approach, holding out his arm and pressing a hand to his chest.

The dark haired leader smirked, a sickening form of amusement lighting up in his dark eyes as his gaze shifted to the salmon haired man, "Ah…so it's _you._ I was curious to see what type of person would be foolish enough to love and marry a girl like _her_."

The salmon haired man growled once more at the way he talked about his wife.

"Calm down, Natsu," Laxus ground out under his breath. "He's just trying to get to you." The blond took a step forward, blocking Natsu's sight of the black haired man. He was smart. Smarter than the blond had first thought. It appeared Mard was fully aware of the maddening effect Lucy's hair would have on them, and that they'd be too infuriated to think straight.

Laxus' voice was reasonably even, but rough enough to get his threat across as he spoke, "You have two of our comrades. I can promise you that all of us would rather avoid having to kill you to get them back, but we'll do it if we have to. Your deaths can be avoided if you give me your word to return them safely to us."

"I'm afraid that your friends may not be able to follow through on the 'safe' portion of that deal. Particularly the boy," the black haired man taunted, his pleased smirk deepening as he saw their features harden in anger. He scanned his eyes over each of them in turn, "There will be no compromise. Only an extermination."

Having received Mard's cue, the man with one eye reached across his body to his hip, withdrawing his weapon from its holster and aiming it towards the teen who stood on the far right edge of the group.

Fear rushed through Natsu's veins when he saw what the man held in his grasp.

It was a gun. A pistol to be more specific, but the type of gun didn't matter in the least to Natsu. He was still terrified of the prospect no matter what shape the firearm came in. Because Makarov had strictly limited and eventually completely forbidden the use of guns due the rarity of ammunition, he'd never shot one in his life, nor had he ever even held one. For as long as he could remember, the guns they had back on base had sat untouched, unloaded, and locked in a chest that rested in the corner of the room where they kept the rest of their weapons.

The one-eyed man smirked at the way Romeo froze in terror, his finger tightening on the trigger as he prepared to fire.

The clicking of the firing pin block releasing spurred Natsu out of his own unmoving state and he lunged, tackling the paralyzed teen out of the gun's path.

Simultaneously, Alzack's fingers slipped from around his bow string, the arrow flying true and striking the man in the right temple.

His now limp body collapsing into the snow signaled the official start of the battle.

The two groups charged, multiple members of Mard's company drawing various kinds of knives to block the attacks launched by Laxus' troop.

The two leaders were quickly locked in hand to hand combat, Laxus clearly having the greater strength out of the two. But Mard was strategic with his defenses and attacks, his size giving him more speed.

Erza had gone for the corpse-like man, who held up surprisingly well against her strength by combating her attacks with a metal staff.

The shaggy haired blond and Loke had immediately gone for each other, both deeming the other a conquerable opponent for having a similar build. They both used daggers, though it quickly became more apparent that the orange haired man was much more skilled with his blade.

Thinking similarly to Loke, Elfman had charged the man with a hulking stature much like his, quickly concluding that other than Laxus, he was probably the only one out of their group that had a chance against a man so big. Gajeel joined him in his pursuit, having no other opponent left and not daring to get in either Laxus' or Erza's way.

Arrows sporadically fell from the sky as the battle began, Alzack and Mira both hesitating to shoot because of the proximity between their enemies and their comrades.

Natsu felt like he was being torn in two. He wanted to stay and fight, to get revenge on the people that had hurt Lucy and Gray. But at the same time, those two were waiting on him to save them.

"Come on, Natsu!"

Cana's frantic shout pulled him out of his inner dilemma, and he turned to see her already dashing through the trees.

He clenched his jaw. No matter how much he wanted to stay and fight the people who had hurt his wife and best friend, he had to trust in his family, that they would get their revenge in full. Lucy and Gray mattered more, and so he took off running south, following Cana's lead with Juvia and Romeo in his stead.

* * *

Lucy hissed through clenched as she trudged through the snow with Gray's arm thrown over her shoulder, her eyes never leaving the familiar tip of the mountain in the distance. Their home rested at its base, a place that promised sanctuary and relief from the horrors of the past day.

Finding her way out of the building they'd been imprisoned in had been difficult enough, so she was relieved when she had finally stumbled out of its doors, immediately catching sight of the mountain rising high above the trees. It was all the encouragement she needed to keep going, to convince her that she could endure all of her pain and heartache for just a little while longer.

She hissed between clenched teeth as Gray's weight pressed against her shoulder with more intensity than before as she accidentally stumbled over a patch of uneven ground, fighting to ignore the blood that spilled down his side and onto the hand she had wrapped around his waist. He moved his feet in rhythm with hers every now and then for a few moments, lessening her load ever so slightly and reassuring her that he was still fighting to survive. He never seemed to fully gain awareness, but it appeared that even in unconsciousness he wanted to do all he could to help her out.

The blonde stumbled to a stop as a new challenge presented itself.

A hill. One she could easily concur if the situation were different. But now she was heavily wounded, utterly exhausted, and carrying another's weight on her shoulders.

Lucy swallowed, gritting her teeth as she hefted Gray's arm into a better position on her shoulder, tightening her grip around his waist at the same time and forcing herself to ignore the pain that shot through her arm as the stumps of her fingers pressed into his side. She couldn't afford to cower out now, not when she had already sacrificed so much of herself to get them this far. She had gotten them out of the asylum, which meant the hard part of their escape was already done.

She had to continue to push forward, for both her and Gray's sake and her family's. She didn't want to be the cause for any more pain and sadness, as she was sure that by now Natsu had already suffered enough at the news of her and Gray's disappearance alone.

And so she began her climb.

It took her the better of two minutes to summit the hill that would have normally only taken her less than one, Gray's dead-weight and her exhaustion threatening to pull her to the ground all the while.

Just as she made it to the top, her right foot caught on a root buried in the snow, her ankle twisting painfully and unnaturally beneath her weight. Gray fell from her grasp as she flailed her arms to catch herself, her feet skidding in the snow in her panic. Unable to find traction, her feet slipped out from under her, sending her tumbling and sliding back down the hill, the blonde shrieking as her bruised and bloodied body continuously collided with the ground on the way down.

She shrieked through clenched teeth as her back slammed into a tree trunk halfway down, bringing her to painful halt. Despite the new, aching pain in her lower back, she was already mentally steeling herself for her climb back up the hill to where Gray had fallen. She figured it'd be easier this time now that she didn't have carry another person, even if her right ankle now hurt like hell from the awkward and unnatural way her weight and a portion of Gray's had been forced onto it, her lower back still thrumming with pain after the impact with the trunk.

After allowing herself a few moments to breathe, she painstakingly pushed herself onto her knees, but as she moved to stand, an agonized scream tore from her throat, her pelvis suddenly burning like it had been set ablaze with the fires of hell. The pain from hours before returned full force all at once, this time so intense she couldn't bring herself to ignore what was happening any longer.

A miscarriage.

She hunched over in pain as the area between her legs grew unbearably warm, tears slipping from her eyes as she watched the crotch of her gray sweatpants slowly stain red with blood.

As another wave of pain racked her frame, she fell onto her side and a shriek tumbled from her lips, her hands wrapping around her pregnant belly as she choked out between sobs, "I'm so sorry….mommy couldn't protect you…"

She rolled onto her back, her hands still pressing against her stomach as she instinctively tried to find a position that would ease her pain.

White spotted her vision, and when the cloud of pain momentarily released her consciousness from its grasp, she saw an unfamiliar sight through the branches of the trees above her. She had been so focused on getting herself and Gray home that she hadn't paid any attention to it before, but now it was all she could see, and it was absolutely breathtaking.

The sky was painted orange and pink, the faintest traces of purple striping between the vibrant and glowing hues of the setting sun. She had never seen a sunset so clearly, the light and vibrant colors so unhindered by the disgusting black sheen of ash in the atmosphere.

It gave her a strange sense of hope. Maybe it was because the pink pools of color reminded her of Natsu, or maybe it was because finally, the world might be going back to normal. Makarov had once told her that when the war was just about to reach its climax, specialists had theorized it would take about twenty years for the effects of the nuclear weapons to begin to reverse, the ash in the atmosphere dissipating being the first step of the world's recovery.

For a moment, she noted how strange it was that the sudden change had happened so fast. Though, she supposed they hadn't been able to see the sky for quite some time, snowstorm after snowstorm blocking their view for weeks on end.

She wished Gray was awake, so that he, too, could see the sight in the sky above them. He'd always been incredibly pessimistic about the whole nuclear winter situation, always turning bitter whenever the world before the war was mentioned. If he could see that there really was hope left, then maybe it'd give her a final sense of satisfaction knowing that she had been right to have faith.

With a sort of grim acceptance, she realized that this might be the only glimpse of the reborn world that she would get to see. It was getting harder to keep her eyes open, and her body had grown numb to the pain, a strange feeling of weightlessness taking over her senses instead.

She was still aware of the tears streaming down her cheeks though, and their flow increased the more she thought about the prospect of death.

She wasn't ready to die. She was only twenty years old, and nearly every goal that she had set for herself in her life was still unfulfilled. Even the fact that she had tried her hardest to save herself and the boy who was like her older brother wasn't a comfort in this moment.

She felt herself begin to slip away, whether just from consciousness or life altogether she didn't know, but her gradual loss of awareness still terrified her. Either way, she still fought off the pull of unconsciousness, fearful that when she opened her eyes again, it wouldn't be to see this world, but the next.

But her fight against the inevitable was a losing battle.

Her vision went white, and the world around her faded into nothingness.

* * *

They hadn't wanted to kill anyone, but they'd been left with no other choice, their enemies refusing to accept defeat in any other form than death.

Mard was the last of their enemies to fall, and he didn't go down easy, having dealt a few hefty blows himself, namely to Laxus. He had met his end by Erza's katana, the red head stabbing the blade through his back when she had finished her own fight.

The dark haired leader's men had all proved themselves to be worthy opponents, but their downfall had come in their lack of comradery. They didn't watch each other's backs like the members of Laxus' group did, and with a number less than that of their opponents', they were constantly caught off guard as arrows rained down from the trees and the members of Laxus' party jumped between the individual skirmishes whenever they saw their comrades in need.

The fight hadn't been won without sacrifice, however. Although on Laxus' side, the loss was not of life like it had been on Mard's. Loke had been shot in the shoulder when the shaggy haired blond had drawn a gun in a last ditch effort to down one of them, and each was suffering from numerous cuts and bruises.

But the greatest burden upon them all was the lives they had taken. Fighting with the intent to kill had felt wrong, but during the battle, the need to exact revenge on the people who had taken and hurt their family had been even greater.

Now that the battle had been won and she was coming back to her senses, Erza looked around at her comrades, and she could tell that they all shared her feelings. Loke had already started back towards base because of his injury, and Alzack had accompanied him. But those who were left in the clearing stood in silence, no cries of glory or victory escaping their lips.

They had always believed and been taught that life was somewhat sacred, and definitely worth preserving now that the majority of the world's population had been snuffed out.

But they had just taken six lives. They were lives spent tormenting others and indulging in cannibalism if Mard's words from before were anything to go by, but they were still lives nonetheless.

Erza told herself that she shouldn't be feeling an ounce of regret. These men had taken and hurt two members of her family, and they deserved their cruel end after all of the lives they had lead.

But no matter the justifications she gave herself, it still felt somewhat wrong, and she knew that this day would haunt her conscience for the rest of her life.

* * *

Natsu lost track of how long he'd been running. Now that he had at least somewhat of a semblance of where Lucy and Gray were, he finally had a direction in which he could run towards with abandon, seeing no reason why he should think about things logically from this point on. Mard's threats had increased his drive and determination, his desperation to save his family too great for him to hold himself back from running to their rescue any longer. Juvia, Cana, and Romeo seemed to agree with him, keeping up with his fast pace without complaint or protest.

He saw the tops of trees in the distance, which meant that the ground dropped off somewhere up ahead. He suddenly decreased his speed, at first because he was wise enough not to barrel down a steep slope, but then because he caught sight of something on the ground just before the terrain gave way to a hill.

He was face down in the snow, but his mop of raven hair was unmistakable.

"Gray!"

Juvia made it to him first, but Natsu wasn't far behind, sliding to his knees beside his fallen friend. Romeo and Cana came to huddle around him as well, similar expressions of worry and horror on their faces as they took in all of the blood covering his body and the snow around him.

The blue haired girl's hands were shaking as she ran them over Gray's unconscious form, Natsu reaching out to aid her as she carefully pushed the raven haired boy onto his back to get a better look at him.

Horror overwhelmed Natsu's senses when he saw that Gray hadn't simply been laying on top of his right arm, but that the limb was missing entirely. A strange mixture of a shriek and a sob escaped Juvia's lips as the bloodied stump emerged from where it had been pressed against the stained coat on the ground, the knot that had held it against the wound having come undone. She fell forward, unintelligible mutterings falling from her lips as her hands sought out his pulse, furthering burying her head into his chest when she found it, though it was weak and barely there.

Cana was the only one of their small group who was able to get over her shock, quickly kneeling by his side and re-tying the clothing against his wound.

Natsu blankly stared down at the display, still too shocked and horrified to move. He'd known that Mard and his company were terrible people, the implications of the word 'prey' ringing through his head over and over ever since it had slipped from the black haired man's lips earlier. But he hadn't been prepared for something like this, something so… _horrible_ and _gruesome._ He couldn't imagine the pain Gray must have endured as his limb was torn from his body, and the fact that he was still breathing and fighting to survive only made Natsu feel more grief for the agony he must still be suffering through, even in unconsciousness.

His mind raced over the impacts of such a loss, his thoughts going beyond the medical effects and extending to the drastic lifestyle changes Gray would face. He wouldn't be able to use his bow anymore, and he'd have to learn to write with his left hand. They would no longer be evenly matched in their brawls, and even something as simple as eating would likely becoming a challenge.

All of those changes…and his missing limb was far from being Gray's only injury, his entire form bloodied and bruised.

Romeo suddenly shifted behind the salmon haired man, his frame tensing and his eyes widening as he shakily breathed out, "N-Natsu…"

The salmon haired man looked to the teen for a moment before following his wide-eyed gaze, his focus slowly traveling down the hill at his right.

The tears that had been gathering ever since he first caught sight of Gray finally fell from his eyes, his voice cracking as he desperately screamed, "LUCY!"

His body moved on its own, shooting to his feet and starting towards her in seconds. He slipped and stumbled a few times in his rush down the hill, but he didn't gave a damn. All that mattered was getting to her.

He collapsed to his knees at her side, his chest tightening and heaving as he saw her breaths escaping her lips in visible trails of vapor, thin and sporadic in the chilled air above her mouth.

She was still alive, but barely.

"Luce…Oh god…" he scanned his gaze over her small frame, desperately needing to touch her to reassure himself that she was here, alive and breathing. But he didn't know where to place his hands without causing her more pain. It seemed there wasn't a single part of her skin that wasn't marred by blood or bruises, and the few areas that were untouched were nearly the color of the snow she rested upon. She had some sickening wounds, notably the gash that ran across her chest. But what horrified him the most was the blood spilling from between her legs.

He'd never been an expert on anything medical, having taken more after his father than his mother in terms of his interests and skill sets. But he didn't need to be an expert to figure out what had happened, and the fire in his veins turned to ice when the grim weight of reality crushed down on him upon catching sight of the blood.

She had lost their baby.

Tears had fallen from his eyes when he had first seen his wife, but now he was full-on sobbing.

"Natsu!" Romeo desperately urged, attempting to pull the salmon haired man out of his hysterics. "Natsu! We have to get her back to base!"

The salmon haired man only now noticed that the teen was kneeling on Lucy's other side, though he heard his words without really processing them. His voice sounded like it was calling to him through water, muffled beyond intelligibility.

Once more, he was too overwhelmed to move. His child was gone without ever even having had a chance to live, and Lucy lay dying before him, her bloodied and broken and bruised form barring no resemblance to the way she had looked when he had seen her last. How had their lives taken such a drastic, deadening turn in the span of only a day?

Only when Romeo moved to lift the blonde from her rest in the snow did he snap back to himself, refusing to let the teen be the one to take her home. He needed to be the one to carry her. To save her. He needed to make up for all that she had been through since her capture, to show her all of the love that she had been deprived of while she suffered at Mard's hands.

And he needed to do it for his own sake, too. He'd already lost one dear member of his family, and he'd be damned if he let himself lose another because he'd been too busy crying to do a thing.

So he did his best to bury his sorrows inside himself, forcing himself to think only about getting his wife back home.

A sob tore from his throat as he slid his arms beneath her back and the crooks of her knees, shuddering at how cold her skin had become. He had known that she'd be without her coat since Gajeel had found it in the snow earlier, but now she was only in her thin undershirt, sweatpants, and socks, all three articles stained with blood and soaked by the snow.

As Natsu gently lifted her from the ground, Romeo shed himself of his coat and laid it over the blonde, wrapping his orange scarf around her neck as well. The salmon haired man pulled her further into his chest once he stood at his full height, desperate to warm her up.

He became somewhat detached from the world as they started back towards base, running as fast as he could with the added weight in his arms. His mind seemed to disconnect from his body as they went, his guilt for what he hadn't been able to prevent and his worry for the future consuming his existence. His body pushed forward without needing his mental consent, instinctually driven to get back to base as fast as possible.

Cana and Juvia were already far ahead of them, the brunette struggling to carry Gray's limp form on her back as Juvia stuck close by and tried to make sure he wasn't jostled around too much.

Romeo fulfilled a similar role for Lucy, always staying close and checking on the blonde often, worried that Natsu was too out of it to watch after her properly.

Blood continued to drip from both Gray's and Lucy's limp bodies, creating a dotted, scarlet trail in the pure white snow behind them.

When they reached the southernmost shore of Lake Scilliora, they were reunited with the comrades they had left behind to fight, but Natsu was still too out of it to process much of what was occurring around him, his mind catching only glimpses of the scene as he pushed through the group of people to continue towards his home.

He saw Mira's hand fly to her mouth upon catching sight of them, her eyes instantly brimming with tears at what had become of their lost family members. Erza's expression was overtaken by pure rage, though she quickly turned that rage into determination, and he caught glances of similar expressions of conviction upon everyone else's faces.

He didn't pay attention to anything that was said, his need to get Lucy to safety far too great for him to concern himself with anything else.

Gray's limp form was carefully passed to Elfman, and the group started off again together, running as fast as they could with their aching hearts and exhausted bodies.

During their trek, Laxus offered to take Lucy from his arms, pointing out that Natsu looked like he was going to collapse at any moment. But the salmon haired man only growled as the blond made to take his wife away from him, pulling her even closer and increasing his speed.

He wouldn't let her go, not until she was back home and safe. Even then, he didn't know if he'd ever be able to bring himself to leave her side, too traumatized by what had happened to her during the mere day they'd been apart.

As they finally entered their base, heading straight through the commons and towards the infirmary, he heard everyone's shocked gasps, but he paid their reactions no mind. He didn't have time to concern himself with answering everyone's inquiries. The only person he cared for in the crowd was his mother.

She suddenly emerged from the mass of people, quickly commanding him and Elfman to follow her without a second of hesitation after catching sight of the bloodied and battered forms of the two who had become like her own children. Natsu didn't have to look to know that every member of his family was trailing behind them as they followed the blunette, desperate to know that their comrades would survive.

Only once he had entered the hallway leading to the infirmary did Natsu stumble, no longer able to combat his exhaustion and grief now that they had reached the goal he'd set for himself, their base. He physically couldn't carry his wife anymore. His body hurt too much, his mind too muddled by all that had happened to command his body properly.

Before he could protest, Lucy was stolen from his arms, Laxus coming and whisking her cold body away from his warmth and taking her the rest of the way to the infirmary, following quickly behind Elfman who still carried a bloodied Gray.

Natsu collapsed to the metal floor of the hallway once her weight was lifted from his arms, finally giving in to the uncontrollable sobs that had been fighting to escape his chest the whole time he had carried her dead weight back to base. He fell forward onto his elbows and knees, the tears streaming down his cheeks increasing their flow as he screamed out his sorrows.

Every member of his family save for those who had continued on towards the infirmary stood still in the hallway behind him, some with tears in their eyes and all stunned into silence by the state of their formerly missing family members.

The salmon haired man on the floor before them was another cause for their motionlessness. Never had they seen him so broken, so saddened that he was beyond any form of consolation.

But they understood, if only but a portion of thoughts and feelings being shared amongst them all.

His wife and best friend were on death's doorstep, and the uncertainty of whether or not they'd live to see another day was absolutely crushing.

* * *

 _A few days later…_

Funerals were a terribly dreadful thing.

They had always been Natsu's most haunting memories, the pain and difficulty of watching as the bodies of his loved ones were lowered into the ground far too overwhelming for him to even consider and be comforted by the fact that their souls might finally be at peace. He had thought that he wouldn't have to endure another funeral as dreadful as Lisanna's, the pain of losing a friend at such a young age too great for him to think that there was something even slightly comparable.

But now he knew that there was something much more dreadful, and that it was the smallest coffins that were the hardest to bury.

There were now sixteen crosses standing tall in the snow covered clearing that rested behind their base, the newest of which was left blank for the time being.

It belonged to his daughter.

If Lucy hadn't been tortured by those psychopaths, in roughly five months' time, he and his wife would have had a little girl. He often imagined how she would have looked, an image of a tiny, salmon haired Lucy appearing vividly in his mind; a perfect combination of him and her mother.

In his lowest point over the past few days, he'd found himself wishing Mard and his men were still alive so he could kill them all himself, to get revenge not only for the damage they had done to Lucy and Gray but for taking away his child's chance at life.

But even in the pits of the sorrowful darkness that had seldom left his presence as of late, he was well aware that nothing could change the fact that his daughter was gone before he had even had a chance to know her. And all of the hopes and dreams he'd had for her, of all that she could become and of the world she'd get to see, would be left unfulfilled; the future he'd envisioned for her and with her completely shattered in the matter of only a few hours.

Every member of his family, save for Lucy, Gray, and Mira, who was watching over the former two, stood behind him as he kneeled before the new grave, their expressions overtaken by similar feelings of grief. Even if she hadn't been born yet, she was still a member of their family, one they had all been looking forward to meeting.

Aside from the salmon haired man, Grandeeny and Wendy seemed to be suffering the most at the loss of the baby Dragneel girl. They had been the ones to pull the deceased fetus from Lucy's unconscious body, having no other choice but to perform an extraction. They had put it off for as long as they dared to, knowing the toll that such a procedure would have on the blonde's injured body, especially when they lacked all of the medical tools necessary to increase the chances of her survival. They were afraid she might not make it through the surgery, but the longer they waited the more apparent it became that if Lucy truly was to get better, the lifeless fetus would need to be removed so that she no longer lost blood by miscarrying naturally. So they had commenced with the procedure, putting their trust in Grandeeny's medical expertise and praying with their whole hearts that the blonde would survive.

And survive she had, but not without suffering the consequences of all her body had endured.

Natsu had seldom left her unconscious form since he had rescued her and Gray, his child's funeral the longest he had been away from side. He was torn apart by the fact that he had buried his daughter before even giving her a name, but it didn't feel right naming her without Lucy there, so he had resolved to wait until she woke up to have the name engraved on the cross.

And she _would_ wake up. She had to. He couldn't handle losing her, not after losing their child.

So he would trust in her endurance, and Gray's, too. They had survived a day in hell, and he had faith that after all of the torture they had been through, they would keep fighting to live.

* * *

Natsu sighed heavily through his nose as he rested his chin on Lucy's mattress, mindlessly playing with the wedding band on her ring finger. The bruises across the back of her left hand had begun fading from a deep purple to a disgusting yellow, a no more pleasant sight to look at, but he was comforted by the fact that at last, her body had started to heal.

Normally, he would have held her right hand, a habit they'd unconsciously developed after their engagement so that Lucy could always show off the ring he'd happened upon by some miracle in an abandoned house's jewelry box whilst scavenging for generator parts a few years back.

But now her right hand was wrapped tightly in bandages.

He hadn't noticed her missing fingers until Wendy had practically dragged him into the infirmary after he had collapsed in the hallway that day, her voice uncharacteristically harsh as she urgently shouted at him to come back to himself because Lucy desperately needed him. He had immediately gone to his wife's side upon entering the door, seeking to hold her hand but drawing back in horror when he caught sight of the disfigured shape under the hastily wrapped bandages.

His mother and sister had only just begun their treatments by the time he'd entered, their work so far only the hasty beginning of a process that would likely take hours. Gray and Lucy's injuries were numerous and each varying in degree of fatality, and to insure their survival, they definitely couldn't cut any corners.

Mira was the last to join Natsu, Grandeeny, Wendy, and the injured in the infirmary, shoving all of their other comrades out into the hallway so they could work in an uncrowded space.

By the time Natsu had pulled himself out of his slump and readied his mind to offer aid in whatever way possible, Lucy's frostbitten feet had already been stripped of her dripping wet socks and set to soak in a container of lukewarm water. Wendy quickly commanded him to rid Lucy of the rest of her soaked clothing while she scrambled to gather the supplies she needed, the wet articles doing the blonde more harm than anything else.

His mother had begun her work on Gray first, his injuries, namely his bloodied stump of a shoulder, obviously in much more urgent need of care than the blonde's. Mira had quickly stripped him of his damp clothes too, allowing them to see the wretched purple and red bruises that covered a horrifying majority of his skin.

While their mother was occupied, Wendy had used her own limited knowledge of first aid to disinfect, stitch, and wrap some of Lucy's lesser wounds. The bite wound on the blonde's neck sickened Natsu the most, not because it was gruesome or unsightly but because of its implications. Someone had sunk their teeth into her neck with the intent of tasting her flesh, and the ring of bruises that ran over the skin under the bite and wrapped around her entire neck making it obvious that someone had also attempted to strangle her. Rage had flooded his veins as he'd became more aware of just what she'd had to endure while in the enemies' hands.

Just as fast as he had caught sight of it, Wendy had blocked the bite mark from his sight, bathing it in alcohol before securing a patch of gauze over the area.

It'd already been five days since then, and still, neither of them had gained consciousness.

Their lack of advanced medical technology made it hard to determine the exact cause, but his mother had told him their lack of awareness and arousal was most likely due to blood loss, though there were slight chances it could've also been brought about by infection or head trauma given the injuries they had both sustained at Mard's hands. They were both suffering from hypothermia as well, their blood flow slowing further because of the hours they had spent out in the frigid weather with the little clothing they had managed to keep during their captivity.

Five days ago, upon hearing his mother's words and seeing Juvia being ushered into the room and allowed to give her blood to Gray, Natsu had immediately volunteered to do the same for Lucy. But their blood types were incompatible, so he had been able to nothing more than sit there and watch as Erza took up the task of saving Lucy's life instead.

And just like a five days ago, there was still nothing he could do but wait.

He sat by Lucy's side always, only leaving for a few minutes at a time to grab food or use the restroom. He'd taken up residence on the floor of the infirmary in between her and Gray's beds, piling a few blankets on top of each other and transporting a few pillows from his and Lucy's bed back in their room.

He was fully intent on being the first person his wife saw upon regaining consciousness.

He'd be there to comfort her and help her recover and do whatever the hell else she wanted and needed him to do. He wasn't going to let her be brought down by all she'd endured, neither physically nor mentally. She'd recover from all that had happened, he'd make sure of it.

* * *

Darkness.

That was the first thing Lucy processed as she peeled her eyes open. For a moment, she feared Mard or one of his other men had found her in the forest; that she'd been dragged back to her cell to face more pain and her efforts to get herself and Gray to safety had been for naught.

But as she became more aware of her surroundings, she realized there were far too many things she felt that were the polar opposite of the conditions she'd had to endure while in Mard's hands.

The comforting warmth. The softness of a bed. The feeling of bandages wrapped around her injuries. The pull of the stitches on her chest as she shifted her head.

However, the most reassuring element of her current environment wasn't felt, but heard.

She'd recognize that snore anywhere. It was light and breathy, and it meant that _he_ was here.

She was safe.

The tears welled up in her eyes as soon as she realized where she was, but unlike the last time she'd sobbed they weren't tears of pain or sorrow or fear. They were tears of _relief,_ because _finally,_ she was home. She was safe.

The light snoring suddenly faded into silence, "Luce?"

Oh god, she'd missed that voice.

She heard something shift to her right, and her body acted before her mind, her arms blindly reaching out in the darkness and winding around his neck as soft, unintelligible mumbles escaped her lips. Her need to be as close to him as possible numbed her to her pain, her entire existence too focused on relishing in his presence to be concerned with anything else for the moment. Even though they'd only been apart for a day, it felt like it'd been _ages_ since she'd last felt his warmth.

"Oh, thank God," his strong arms wound around her waist just as quickly as her arms had embraced him, his voice carrying relief, but also as a strange mixture of disbelief and urgency as he muttered into her hair, reassuring himself, "You're awake…fucking hell, Luce…scared the shit out of me."

They stayed like that for quite some time, neither willing to let go after all that they'd been through. Sometime during their embrace, Natsu gently lowered her upper body back onto the mattress, his elbows now resting on either side of her head and her arms still wrapped tightly around his neck.

"You shouldn't move around too much…not even sitting up on your own. You don't want to make your injuries worse," he shifted in her hold, lying next to her on the very edge of the bed and resting his forehead against hers as he carefully slid one of his arms beneath her head.

Lucy withdrew her arms from his neck when he shifted, nuzzling her head into his chest once he'd settled. Her broken nose ached painfully after she accidentally bumped it against his shoulder, but her exhaustion was too overpowering for her to care much. She desperately wanted to let her weary mind sink back into unconsciousness, with his warmth burning away the nightmares she was certain would plague her sleep after all she'd endured. But there were a few things she had to know before she could let herself give in to the pull of her exhaustion, and only once she had received her answers would she let herself rest.

Her mouth was incredibly dry, but she forced her tongue to function anyways, a single name scratching its way up her throat, "G-Gray?"

His other arm snaked back around her waist, pulling her even tighter against him as he gently reassured, "He's here, Luce. He's here. You both made it out alive."

She let out a small breath, relieved to know that in the end, her efforts hadn't been in vain.

But she couldn't dismiss all of her fears yet, the very last thing that'd drained her of her will to carry on before she'd lost consciousness consuming her thoughts. She already knew the answer to the question she was about to ask, but there was still a faint glimmer of hope within her that refused to believe the worst had happened. So even though tears had already begun to gather in her eyes, she shakily, fearfully breathed out, "T-the…the b-baby?"

There was a sharp intake of breath next to her ear, and she felt his frame tense against hers as soon as the words slipped from his lips. She could hear his tears in his quivering voice as he quietly gave her his grim answer, "…She's gone, Luce…"

 _She._ It would've been a baby girl.

His arms wrapped even tighter around her quivering form as her sobbing resumed with as much force as she could muster in her weakened state.

It wasn't fair. To have her child torn away from her before she had even gotten the chance to know her. And by a force she had absolutely no control over, no less. It wasn't fucking fair.

"It's not your fault, Luce," Natsu buried his nose in her hair, pouring all of his love for his wife into his words as he did his best to comfort her, "I know that you did all you could. You always do."

He left his reassurances at that, knowing that sometimes, it was best to cry it all out. He'd done so himself only a few days prior, so he simply held her against him, through his warm embrace letting her know that he was here, and he wouldn't be leaving her side any time soon.

* * *

Natsu swallowed heavily as he made his way back to the infirmary from his room, one of his own thick sweatshirts, a pair of his wife's favorite sweatpants, and the heavy, thick blanket from their bed gathered in his arms. He got a few strange stares from the people he passed in the hallways, but he didn't pay them any mind or bother to explain himself, his mind solely and firmly focused on his plan.

He'd only been this nervous to see Lucy twice before: when he'd gone to propose to her and when she'd walked down the aisle they'd made in their commons, wearing the prettiest white dress they could find from one of the nearest neighborhoods. But this time, it wasn't the pleasurable type of nervousness that he had felt back then, the kind that gave him a slight thrill and made his heart feel like it was on fire. The form of nervousness he felt now could be better described as crushing anxiety, his heart feeling heavy like lead and ice-cold uncertainty rushing through his veins instead of exhilarating fire.

He briefly noted that his pounding anxiety was likely attributed in part to the fact that Gray wasn't by his side like he had been during the proposal and the wedding. His best friend was still unconscious, and therefore unable to give his reassurances that his idea would work and cheer Lucy up.

He glanced over at the raven haired boy briefly as he finally entered the infirmary, a smidge of relief lacing throughout his vast amount of distress over Gray's situation because finally, his best friend was slightly less paler than he had been since they had rescued him.

The infirmary's other occupant was propped up against her pillows, the book Levy had picked out for her lying across her lap and her eyes tiredly skimming across the pages.

He was glad to see the empty bowl resting on the bedside table, mentally making a note to thank Wendy later for helping the blonde eat while he was away performing maintenance on the generator for a few hours. He always hated leaving her side, especially ever since she'd woken upon a few days ago. But he couldn't neglect his duties for forever, and Lucy had made sure he was out the door first thing after lunch, threatening to throw whatever she could get her hands on.

The blonde looked up when he entered, giving him her best attempt at a smile as she closed her book and set it beside the empty bowl on the nightstand. It pained him to see her act like she was fine when she clearly wasn't, especially when she was doing it for his sake; to make him feel like he didn't have to worry as much. He'd always been fond of her steadfastness and ability to stand strong during her trials, but there were times when he wished she'd let herself be weak for at least a moment and allow him to carry some of her load.

"Hey, Luce…how was your dinner?"

Her lips twisted, her voice still a bit hoarse from disuse as she quietly remarked, "As good as a soup with fish in it can be."

Natsu lightly chuckled at her answer, the fact that she still loathed fish giving him a strange sense of relief.

They fell into light conversation for a brief moment, chattering about the book she was reading, about the generator, and the other mundane happenings of their life on base.

And then the inevitable moment came where they were both reminded about all that happened recently, Natsu unintentionally shattering their quick moment of pleasant reverie by bringing up Gajeel and Levy's twins in a seemingly harmless comment about the rest of their family. As soon as the words had slipped from his mouth he was reminded of his own child, the one he'd had to bury only a few days ago. A single glance at Lucy told him she'd been reminded of her too, and he cursed to himself under his breath when he saw her eyes become glassy with tears.

Natsu pushed through his own grief, still determined to do whatever he could to help his wife endure hers too, "Luce…There's something I want to show you. I…I think it might make you feel better, 'kay?"

"…'kay," she quietly breathed out, biting her lip to restrain her pained whimpers as she carefully scooted herself across the bed and dangled her legs over the edge.

Without a word, Natsu knelt down at her bedside, pulling a pair of socks out of his coat's pocket and unfolding them from each other before carefully sliding them onto her feet over her bandages. She'd always had a thing for thick, fuzzy socks, and he'd always made sure to check for them in the drawers of every house he'd scavenged through. The pair he'd retrieved from their dresser was her favorite; light blue in color with a small snowman based at the heel.

The sweatpants went on next, the garment taking the longest to put on because of the pain of moving her hips after her miscarriage and the following procedure.

He slipped one of his sweatshirts, the thickest and warmest one he had, over her head last, being mindful of her broken noise and the injuries on her neck. He pulled back with a content sigh when he saw that it practically smothered her smaller form. The sleeves extended past her hands for a few inches, and he mentally celebrated, satisfied that he'd been right in assuming she wouldn't need gloves.

He gave her a gentle smile as he wrapped their heavy blanket around her shoulders, "Ready?"

She softly nodded her head, flinching a bit when the bite on her neck and the bruises around her throat let out a dull ache at the movement.

Despite Natsu's efforts to be gentle as he could, the blonde still let out a faint whimper as he lifted her from the bed, one arm beneath the crook of her knees and the other wrapped around her back. In return, she circled her arms around his neck, resting her head in the junction of his neck and shoulder.

He walked at a slow pace, being mindful not to jostle his wife around. He didn't want her to feel any pain because of his habitual recklessness, so he made sure to hold her as steady as possible, being extra careful to take even steps.

The feel of her in his arms brought back countless memories, namely the times where he had carried her like he was now, recklessly dragging her off to go on a crazy adventure or something of the sort with Gray and Erza and sometimes countless other members of their family hot on their heels. Of course, they were strictly limited on the things they could do both within and outside their base, but no matter what the activity, there had never been a dull moment when they were together.

He carefully weaved through the chairs and tables in the commons of their bunker, the most common setting of their shenanigans, grateful that the room was nearly empty given the lateness of the hour. He didn't want to have concern himself with his family's attention, knowing Lucy would rather much prefer peace and quiet as well. Besides, she'd already had her fill of visitors since she'd woken up two days ago. There hadn't been a single moment where the space beside her bed wasn't occupied, and he was sure nearly every member of their family had stopped by at some point by now.

The only people in the commons at present were Erza, Cana, and Loke, the orange haired boy with the arm of his injured shoulder tucked into a sling. The three briefly paused in their hushed conversation to cast glances his way, but knowing better, they didn't interrupt, simply turning back to their conversation and leaving the couple to themselves.

As he entered the tunnel that lead up to the entrance of their base, Natsu glanced down at his wife, softly requesting, "Can you close your eyes, Luce? I want it to be a surprise."

She furrowed her brows for a moment before she complied, a small mutter of "'kay," slipping through her lips as she rested her head back against his chest.

Freed and Bickslow were waiting near the door for him like he'd asked of them, and as they opened the entrance, the blonde in his arms flinched slightly at the loud screeching of its hinges, "We're going outside?"

"Yep," the door was shut behind them, and Natsu started towards the thick blanket he'd laid out earlier, spanning a patch of snow-free ground only a short distance from the entrance of their bunker, "Let me know if you're cold, 'kay? We'll head right back inside."

"I'm okay." There were slight traces of curiosity and surprise in Lucy's voice as she quietly remarked, "It…it doesn't feel as cold as it normally does."

He carefully lowered her onto the thick blanket, making sure the material wrapped around her shoulders was pulled tight against her form as he helped her lay down before dropping next to her himself and pulling her into his side.

"You can open your eyes now."

He grinned as he heard her sharp intake of breath.

The sky was far from being completely clear of ash, but the shining white flecks of light scattered across the black night were unmistakably stars.

Lucy's hope for civilization to thrive once more aside, Natsu always known that in regards to the end of the nuclear winter, her greatest wish had always been to see the stars her mother had spoken so fondly of. Layla's books about the constellations, mythology, and other celestial anomalies had always been her favorite belongings, and now, the bright lights were finally visible to them for the very first time in their lives, no longer existing solely in the stories but now shining undeniably bright in the night sky above them.

Natsu let out a heavy sigh, content with the sight of the stars and the feel of his wife in his arms, "I guess that storm last week cleared out a lot of ash. And gramps has always said that it'd take about twenty years for the effects of the war to reverse, so…I guess it's happening. The world's finally going back to normal."

"It's…beautiful…" Lucy softly breathed out, her voice filled with awe and admiration.

"Yeah," he let out a small chuckle at her speechlessness, finding it funny that the girl who had always wound phrases into marvelous stories was now only capable of muttering those two, simple words. "If they're this bright now, I can't imagine how bright they're gonna be when all of this ash is finally gone."

They sat in silence, and Natsu didn't have to ask to know that Lucy was busying mentally tracing lines between the few stars they could see, trying to pick out the constellations from her mother's books. He highly doubted any of them were fully visible through the ashy atmosphere, but he hoped someday they would be so she could tell him all about them, because he loved nothing more than to hear her speak of the things she was passionate about.

Natsu let out a heavy sigh after a few minutes of their pleasant, reverent silence. He couldn't keep Lucy outside for long, not when she had gravely suffered because of the cold only a week prior. And his mother was probably going to kill him for even taking her out of the infirmary in the first place. But he didn't want to force her away from something that had finally seemed to distract her from her sorrows and give her hope.

"You warm enough?"

She softly nodded her head against his chest, her eyes finally straying from the stars in the sky above them and finding his.

He met her halfway and pressed his lips gently to hers, relishing in the first kiss they had shared since her disappearance. He cupped her cheek with one of his hands, pressing her lips more firmly against hers in comfort and reassurance when he felt her tears make impact with his skin.

As they pulled apart, she let out a small noise, so quiet that he couldn't distinguish whether it was a sigh or a whimper.

"Luce? What is it?"

"Nothing, really," she quietly breathed out, a soft smile on her face despite the tears that still silently streamed down her cheeks as she laid her head back on his shoulder, "Just…thank you, Natsu."

* * *

Natsu weaved through his family members in the hallways as he rushed towards the infirmary, eager to meet with its only occupant now that his work for the day was completed.

Gray was finally awake.

The salmon haired man had caught word of the good news through Romeo, who'd immediately come to find him in the generator room upon hearing the information himself.

He felt kind of bad for going to see Gray without Lucy, the blonde now cleared by his mother to rest back in their room with Happy as she continued her recovery. But he wanted a few moments alone with his best friend if he could manage to shew away all of the others he was sure were crowding around Gray's bed in the infirmary, not intent on having people there to witness the conversation he was planning on having with the raven haired man.

For once, he knew they'd actually be having a pretty serious conversation given all that happened, one that didn't involve fighting and carried a weight between them that they'd never been victim to before. Hell, even when he'd asked Gray to be his best man, a conversation that would normally be a pretty big deal and taken very seriously, they'd been in the middle of a fist fight. And Gray had accompanied his answer of 'like hell I'm gonna let anyone else do it, flamebrain' with a punch to the salmon haired man's face. Natsu couldn't have people seeing them actually get along for once, and he definitely didn't want anyone to know that he'd actually _thanked_ his rival for something.

Natsu paused in the doorway of the infirmary, freezing in his steps as a wave of relief washed over him at the sight of Gray, his dark eyes open and shining with life in contrast to the grim state of his body. Even if he had already heard about his friend's awakening, it was much more absolving to see Gray, awake and aware, with his own eyes.

Juvia was sitting at his bedside, a gentle smile on her face as she watched him and Loke exchange a few lines of banter, though Gray was much less enthusiastic about their conversation than the orange haired man.

The salmon haired man waited under the doorframe, letting Loke finish his visit before he approached, knowing full well that every member of his family had just as much of a right to want to check on Gray as he did.

Loke gave him the tiniest quirk of his lips accompanied by a single head nod as he passed, Natsu's mood dampening a fraction when the orange haired man's smug grin made it looked like he knew exactly what Natsu was planning on doing.

Gray's expression lit up a fraction upon catching sight of the salmon haired man approaching, though he quickly forced all of his features to relax, not intent on letting his rival know that he was actually happy to see him.

Natsu lowered himself onto the edge of the bed Lucy had occupied up until yesterday, looking at the blue haired girl at Gray's beside as he tentatively asked, "Can…can I talk with him alone for a bit?"

An expression of agitation briefly flashed across her features, but her face was quickly softening again, smiling warmly at Gray once more before making her way through the door and even gently closing it behind her.

Natsu's gaze dropped to the floor as they were left alone in silence, suddenly finding himself unsure of how to start the conversation. Fighting definitely wasn't an option, and without his usual go-to response to anything Gray said, he found himself at a loss of words.

When it became to him that the salmon haired man wasn't capable of speaking first this time, Gray took the liberty of beginning their conversation, his voice hoarse as he asked, "So…how's Lucy?"

Natsu finally raised his gaze from the floor as the words slipped from his friend's mouth, his lips pressing into a thin line as he took in the sight of Gray's body once more. Despite his constant fighting with the raven haired boy, it hurt to see him so beat up, to hear him sound so weak.

A soft smile spread across his lips as he thought about his wife and gave his response, "She's getting better. Slowly, but still…she's already lookin' a hell of a lot better than she did a few days ago. You know her. She'll be back up on her feet in no time."

"That's good," Gray remarked in content.

Silence filled the room again.

Even though Natsu had been thinking of expressing his gratitude nearly all day, he'd never come to a comfortable conclusion on how to actually go about it. He and Gray never talked about things as complicated as _feelings,_ instead always preferring to show their emotions through their actions, most often violent actions, rather than words. It felt incredibly strange to have thank his friend verbally, to pour all of his gratitude into his voice and tell him instead of showing him. But finding the words to let Gray know about the overwhelming gratitude he felt for all his friend had done for Lucy was something he desperately needed to do, because he sure as hell wasn't about to hug his rival or anything else as absurd and disturbing as that to show his thanks.

He decided to just fuck it, to just get the words out before he couldn't muster the gusto to do it anymore, "Thanks, Gray. For looking out for Lucy. She told me about what you did…how you lost your arm. I can't imagine how hard that must've been, but you did it anyways to save her. You don't how grateful I am for that."

For a moment, Gray looked surprised, his eyes widened a fraction and his features frozen. But the hard lines of his face were soon melting into a soft, barely there half smile, half smirk, "Well duh, flamebrain. Like hell I'd just let them do something like that to her. And besides, I made you a promise, right? That I'd watch out for her?"

"But that's a hell of a thing to do for somebody."

Gray's focus slid down to the space his right would have occupied had he not lost it, his voice somewhat solemn, but still void of any regret, "She's not just 'somebody,' though. She's family, like my little sister. I couldn't let her go through something like that. I was willing to lose my arm if it meant I could save her life." He looked back to his friend, "Anyways, I guess I should say 'you're welcome.' Not that you have to thank me for what I did. I only did what I knew I had to do."

Even though Gray had just practically thrown his thanks out the window, Natsu let out a small chuckle when he saw the knowing looking in his rival's eyes. Despite their constant brawling, they always had each other's backs, just like the brothers they were raised to be, and there were certain things that didn't have to be said aloud for them to know each other's feelings and completely understand one another.

"Now, if you're done being all sappy," the raven haired man half-heartedly jibed, a small smirk still on his face, "would it be okay if I saw Lucy? Can she move around on her own yet?"

Natsu stood from his seat, turning towards the door and waving his hand in the air to dismiss his rival's jab, "Yeah, yeah, I'll go get her. She's probably gonna kill me for coming to see you without her anyways, so might as well make my death swift," he lightheartedly joked. "And don't let Lucy leave you behind in the dust with getting better, frosty." His lips twisted in a mischievous smirk as he turned back over his shoulder, "'Cause you look super gross. Even grosser than you did before."

Gray's angered shout of, "Get the fuck back here, you flaming piece of shit!" chased him down the hallway as he cackled to himself, dutifully heading towards his and Lucy's room to retrieve the blonde like his friend had asked.

He was relieved to know that even if his body had been worn down, Gray's spirit hadn't suffered the same fate.

* * *

"Hey."

"Hey," Lucy returned Gray's soft smile, laying down on the same mattress she had been unconscious on for five days and looking at him from across the gap in between their beds. Her body still felt too weary for her to hold herself upright for more than a few seconds, and it had taken all she had just to walk from where Natsu had set her down at the door of the infirmary to the bed. She knew Gray didn't mind that she was taking it easy, and he was laying down himself, so she made herself as comfortable as she possibly could with her abused body.

Her lips pressed into a grim line when she noticed he was doing his best to look her over, obviously eager to see how well she was healing. His eyes traveled to her stomach first, which certainly wasn't back to being as flat as it had been before her pregnancy, but it was definitely lacking its former, obvious baby bump. His gaze went down next, landing on her bandaged feet, her sprained ankle enclosed in a much heftier wrapping than the other. With the rest of her body swathed in her warmest clothing, concealing the majority of her other injuries from sight, his eyes had no place left to go but her face. His focus skimmed over her bandaged hand on the way up, finally landing on her gauzed and bruised nose.

His voice was laced with bitterness as he sourly remarked, "God…they really beat the shit out of us, didn't they?"

"Yeah…" the blonde quietly, solemnly agreed. She was glad he didn't mention anything about her baby, having had enough of her other family members talk on the matter and give her their condolences. It was actually kind of driving her a bit mad, to be constantly reminded of her loss by the people who she went to for comfort and support. It wasn't like she wanted to ignore it and pretend like it had never happened, but she wanted at least one moment of normalcy and relief from the after effects of what she'd been through, not for everyone to treat her like she was a completely different, now fragile person instead of who she used to be.

She supposed Gray probably knew how she felt, and that's why he'd avoided bringing up the topic. Other than Natsu, he'd always known her thoughts and feelings the best, even without her having to speak a single word.

Lucy let out a soft sigh, finally content with being able to speak the words she'd been wanting to him hear ever since he'd lost his arm, "Thanks, Gray. For protecting me back there."

He chuckled to himself, his focus turning back to the ceiling as he huffed out an exasperated breath, "God, you and your damn husband. Both acting like I was the hero." He returned his gaze to her, his voice full of sincerity, "I think I should be the one thanking you. For getting me out of there when I was unconscious. You could've just left me behind, but you didn't. So thanks, Lucy."

"I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I'd left you behind." The blonde's voice became much more lighthearted as she joked, "Plus, I'm pretty sure Juvia would've killed me if I'd come back without you."

"Yeah, probably," Gray chuckled lightly.

Their soft laughter faded into a comfortable silence for a few moments before Lucy gently breathed out, "We proved him wrong."

Gray's brows furrowed, "What?"

She swallowed heavily, her throat tightening as a name with horrid memories attached slipped from her lips, "Mard…he said love was weakness, right?" She firmly connected her gaze with Gray's, "We proved him wrong. We both survived."

His expression was frozen for a moment as he processed her words, "Yeah..." he let out a single, breathy laugh, "looks like we did."

Gray looked back up to the ceiling, noting that for once, it seemed like his prayers had been answered. Their salvation had come in the form of their own endurance and their everlasting faith in their comrades, everyone involved in the rescue powered by their love for those they considered family. He was eternally grateful to them for dragging him back from the brink of death and returning him safely home, and even after they had rescued him they continued to shower him with fondness and tenderness to help him heal. He'd always brushed off their affection, but he was truly grateful that'd he'd been privileged enough to grow up in a family as devoted as his.

He knew it would take time for Lucy and him to heal, both mentally and physically. But with their family by their side, he had no doubt that they'd be back up on their feet in no time, running off to explore the new world that was beginning to open before them. The planet was finally going back to normal, and he had already begun to form visions of their future in his head, fully intent on rebuilding what had once been with his family and continuing their lives in the reborn Earth.

After all he'd been through, he'd realized his parents had been right to tell him stories of the world before the war, to let him know that even if there was darkness and chaos in the past, there was hope and light, too. And in the present, such was the case as well; his life filled both light and darkness after all he'd been through, from the adventures he'd shared with those he considered siblings to being held captive by Mard. That meant that the future held the same potential, the potential to be the counter to the darkness of the past twenty years; to be an era of light and renewal.

He'd always been fearful of the future, uncertain of what would happen when the generator finally failed and their food rations ran out. But he now had complete faith in his family, that they'd continue to thrive and survive even in the uncertainty of the new world. Because tough times don't last, but tough people certainly do.

* * *

 **AN**

 **And its done! In terms of events, this chapter just kind of wrote itself. Actually writing it out was the hard part, but I tried to stick with some of the themes I've been touching on throughout the story to wrap it up nicely. I hope the long wait for this chapter was worth it!**

 **Now, like always, some notes on my thought process during this chapter:**

 **-Since they're all humans in this fic, I did my best with picking key features of the nine demon gates to help explain who was present, so I hope you could tell who was who.**

 **-While I'm sure some of you really wanted an epic Natsu saving Lucy/Natsu kicking ass moment, I chose to do it the way I did because 1) More than any other trope, I love it when Lucy kind of saves herself and 2) I also wanted to see Natsu save her in some way. So I hope that the way it played out was kind of the best of the worlds :)**

 **-I know that I'd feel royally fucked up if I ever took a life, even if it was in self defense, so that's why I added that aftermath scene in with Erza. Also with Lucy killing Jackal, I kind of explored what it might feel like if I ever got pushed to the point of having murder as my only escape (cause I relate to Lucy a lot in terms of personality and morals)**

 **-Idk if a lot of the events in this chapter concerning the nuclear winter and the medical stuffs with Gray and Lucy were correct, but I was basing it off of what I do know, so I hope it wasn't drastically incorrect**

 **Now, with all of that said, I just wanted to say one final THANK YOU for reading! I know that this wasn't the most pleasant fic to read, but it was fun to write a darker story and explore a new side of my writing, and I'm incredibly grateful for all of the positive feedback I've received!**

 **Signing off for the last time**

 **~McSquidster**


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